An Assassin's Emotions
by Equish
Summary: Assassins, liars, murderers, sadists, danger beasts and powerful individuals fuelled by their equally powerful Teigu, all revolving around a single corrupt Empire. That's the world they all lived in. It needed to change. The Revolutionary Army knew that. Night Raid knew that. And he sure as hell knew that. But change doesn't come without bloodshed and death.
1. First

An Assassin's Emotions Chapter 1.

I don't own Naruto or Akame ga Kill.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Wait up!"<p>

The carriage stopped and Tatsumi lurched forward from the suddenness. He looked to his left, where the cute, nicely dressed blonde girl—Aria—had been sitting, to see her poking her head out the window.

"Hello?" She said questioningly.

"Hey." It was a male's voice, panting, like he'd been running laps around the capital. "Well... this is kind of awkward, but..."

"Spit it out, boy." One of Aria's guards driving the carriage said bluntly.

"Ah, sure." He sounded out of place. "Do you, uh, maybe have a place for me to stay?" There was a small bit of silence before he continued. "It's just that I saw you pick up that other guy just before, and I thought that maybe..."

"You're not from the capital, are you?" Aria questioned with interest.

"Well, no." The voice admitted. "I've only been here for a few days, and I got robbed of all my money today."

Tatsumi could relate. He didn't have a place to stay either, and his cash had been jibbed from him by that damn boob woman promising him a high position in the army.

"Then of course!" Aria's voice was enthusiastic, light and chipper, the same tone she'd had when she offered him a place to sleep. "My home's got plenty of room, it won't be a problem at all."

"Really? Great!"

Aria popped her head back in, smiled at Tatsumi, and squished up against him so the other guy could hop in and have enough room to sit down, which he did so with a relieved sigh. His blond hair, a similar shade to Aria's, was spiky, almost wild in appearance, complimented by the six whisker marks he had, three on each cheek. His deep blue eyes shone with gratefulness, and the wide grin on his face showed his emotions. Covering his body was a sort of torn and tattered white cloak, with an orange shirt underneath and black pants, while a necklace with a green gem on it hung around his neck.

"I'm Aria." She introduced as the carriage began to move once more. The blond grabbed her hand and gave it a firm shake, grinning like a loon.

"Nice to meet ya." His grin dimmed down into a smaller, cheerful smile. "I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Thanks for letting me stay over, Aria-chan."

Aria retracted her hand and giggled into it. "It's my pleasure." She moved her hand away and gestured it towards Tatsumi. "And this is Tatsumi. He's in a similar situation that you're in."

He leaned forward a bit around Aria's frame and waved. "Hey."

"Yo." His blue eyes glinted. "I've got a feeling we're gonna get along just fine."

* * *

><p>Naruto whistled at the interior of the mansion as he and Tatsumi followed Aria through the place. They went up one side of the stairs in the main lobby onto the upper floor, hooked a right down the hallway matted with decadent walls and golden and jewelled objects resting on podiums, their feet padding along the long royal red rug.<p>

"Nice place." Naruto commented. Aria didn't reply, but Tatsumi seemed to be in agreement with him.

They made a left through an open doorway and came to a room. In the middle was a wooden table so clean and elegant that it practically shined, while at each long end was a chair, and along the length was two comfy looking couches. Naruto mused that they could probably fit a dozen people all up. Beside it, built into the wall, was a nice looking fireplace with a fire already burning in it, while a painting was hung above it.

"Ahh, Aria." The old man sitting on one of the couches smiled, his thick mustache twitching with his facial expression. He took a sip of whatever was in his mug before continuing. "You brought people home again, huh? Two this time."

"What a habit." Opposite the old man, on the other couch, was a woman, with a small but easy smile on her pretty face. Aria's mother? Maybe, but she definitely looked young enough to just be her older sister. "I wonder how many it's been now."

In the corner of the room was two guards, hands behind their backs and stoic looks on their faces. They wore the same uniform, but their size differed a fair bit—one was fat, and the other looked pretty fit.

Beside him, Tatsumi bowed, a grateful look on his face. "Thank you very much for bringing me in!"

Aria turned around in surprise at the sudden outburst, crossing her arms over her chest and smiling when she saw the teen. "It's okay, it's okay." She assured. "Make yourself at home. Both of you."

Naruto perked up. "Really?" Aria nodded slowly at his question. "Then you wouldn't mind if I just went to bed now, would you? I'm beat after what I've been through in the capital so far."

"Of course not." She gestured one of the stoic guards over—the fat one. "Please, show our guest to his room, and make sure he's comfortable."

"Yes, M'lday." He wobbled over—almost literally—and out the door, motioning for Naruto to follow, which he did swiftly.

Naruto was back out in the hallway again. He followed the shorter and much fatter man to the end of it, passing plenty of doors on the way, until they reached the end where a spiral staircase awaited them. They went down and came into a wide, spacious room with ten doors, four on each side with the remaining two directly in front of them, five or so metres apart.

The fat man wobbled over to the first room on the right, and Naruto imitated a penguin with his cheeks puffed out behind him out of boredom. He kind of hoped the man would turn around and see him, wondering what kind of reaction he'd get.

"Here you are, sir." He paused a few feet away from the door and turned, Naruto stopping his imitation. "If there's anything you need, then feel free to ask any of the servants around the house."

He began to move away, but Naruto stopped him with his voice, a smirk on his face. "Actually, there is something I need."

"Yes?"

Naruto spun around and grinned. "Ramen." He said with excitement at just the thought. "I'm gonna need some of the Godly stuff."

"Just a bowl, sir?"

"Whatever you think is a decent amount." The man nodded, but blinked in shock at his next set of words. "Then times that by ten and bring me that."

* * *

><p>"So you want to join the military in order to save your village?"<p>

Tatsumi nodded. "Yes."

He was seated in the chair opposite the fireplace, while the old man was in the other chair, with Aria and her mother on both the couches.

"That's a nice dream and all." The old man rested his chin in his palm, a contemplative look on his face. "But, you know, it may be peaceful in the capital, but outside this country is surrounded on three sides by different races." He closed his eyes. "You could be brought over to the borders to fight them."

"I know... I'm prepared for that." Tatsumi said. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to save my village."

"I see, that's a commendable spirit." His mustache tugged upwards with the corner of his lips. "That's how the young should be."

"Did you come from that village by yourself, Tatsumi?" Aria asked.

The question took his mind off the army and made him think about his two friends and he frowned. "No." He admitted. "There was two others, but we were attacked by night bandits one night and got separated."

"Oh dear..." Aria's mother remarked, looking sorry for him.

"Those guys are strong, so I'm not really worried." He continued. He didn't want to get looks like that. "It's just that Ieyasu is horrible with directions, so I don't know if he can get to the capital where we're supposed to meet."

"I see." The old man put his mug back down after sipping from it while Tatsumi had been talking. "I'll recommend you to an acquaintance in the military, and investigate those two as well."

Tatsumi lit up at his words. "Thanks so much!"

Aria slid closer to him from the couch she was on. "My intuitions good, you know." She said, sounding fully convinced with herself in her next words. "I think you'll be seeing the both of them before too long."

"Aria-san..." He smiled, feeling better about the situation from her certainty.

"Alright, why don't we leave it here for now?" The old man suggested, getting up and rolling his shoulders.

"Umm, just a moment." Once everyone's attention was on him again, he continued speaking. "Is there anything I can help you with while I'm here?"

"Of course!" Aria piped in with the same cheerful smile she always seemed to have on. "You can be my bodyguard with the others."

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><p>Naruto hadn't come with them into the capital. He'd stayed at the mansion instead, saying that he was going to just stay there and help anyone who needed it as he apparently couldn't fight and would be useless as a bodyguard. Tatsumi couldn't refute that, the guy didn't even have any weapons on him.<p>

"Come on!" Aria encouraged with enthusiasm, pointing towards another shop, stars pretty much in her eyes. "We're going to that shop next!"

The two guards on her tail moaned and groaned, carrying some of what she'd bought. "My Lady, please slow down..."

Tatsumi couldn't help but gape at the stack of boxes in the wagon, all holding the various clothing that Aria had already purchased so far. It would only get bigger. "She really doesn't hold back, does she?" The guard standing by the wagon with him gave him a glance. "The amount is just getting ridiculous now."

"It's not just her, you know. All girls are like that."

"Really?" Tatsumi questioned. "The one I know doesn't act like this."

The guard shrugged. "Anyway, look up." He said, doing just that and Tatsumi followed his line of sight, his surprise for one day getting bigger and bigger at the giant construct that his eyes were laid upon, surrounded by equally massive walls. "That's the palace."

"I-It's humongous." Tatsumi blinked a few times to make sure that what he was seeing was genuine. "Is that where the Emperor who controls the country is?"

"Not exactly." He looked around shiftily before leaning down to Tatsumi's level and speaking in a much quieter tone. "It's a little different... While there's an Emperor, he's just a child right now. The one that controls that Emperor from the shadows is the Minister. He's the reason this country is rotting."

"So-"

The guard covered his mouth. "Careful." He warned. "If anyone catches you talking about it, heads will roll."

Tatsumi nodded and his mouth was released. He couldn't help but scowl at the information. "Then, the reason my village is suffering from taxes..."

"Yeah." He stood back up straight and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at some posters stuck on the brick wall, his tone becoming like it had been before. "But there's guys like that as well."

"Night Raid?" Tatsumi focused on the one he could read the clearest. There was a picture of a girl with long black hair on it, the name Akame underneath, while above the photo was the words _Night Raid._

"They're a group of assassins that are rattling the entire capital." The guard began to explain. "Just as their name suggests, they attack during the night. They mainly target high-ranging or wealthy individuals, so be ready just in case."

Tatsumi nodded in understanding. "Got it." He wouldn't let some group of assassins kill the only people who had been nice to him since he'd gotten to the capital.

"Oh, and..." He gestured over to the side, where the two who had been following Aria were struggling to carry a large box, easily twice the size of themselves. "Go do something about that."

* * *

><p>Aria's mother strolled through the mansion, the moonlight shining through the large glass windows. She looked down at the diary she held in her hand, thinking of the contents that it contained. "Maybe I'll make a diary entry today as well." She smiled, a warm feeling flowing throughout her being. "I really can't stop this hobby of mine..."<p>

Suddenly and instantaneously, any feeling in her arms and lower body disappeared, and she felt weightless. Her eyes opened and she saw her body from the waist down, standing there, missing the top half, while her arms and diary soared through the air in her peripheral vision, blooding spraying everywhere.

"Huh?"

She felt what was left of her slam into the floor, she saw a glint of metal and a shade of purple, then her vision was gone. The last thing she heard before nothingness overcame her was: "I'm sorry."

* * *

><p>Tatsumi's eyes snapped open. Something was wrong. There was an overly oppressive feeling around, as well as a thirst for blood.<p>

_'Blood lust?'_ He got out of the bed that had been provided for him, snatched up his sword, and stormed out of the room. He ran down the hallway, thinking of the words that the guard had said to him earlier that day. _'Don't tell me...'_

He came to a sudden stop. Looking out the large window and up in the sky, he saw them. There was five, the moon shining brightly behind them, and he recognised a couple of their faces from the posters he'd seen in the city. They were standing on a bunch of thin, tangled wires.

"Night Raid." He said with realization of what was happening. "They're targeting this place as well, just because they're wealthy?!" He looked down into the courtyard where the guards were mobilizing, moving to engage the members of Night Raid, and wondered what he should do; go and help them, or find and protect Aria.

Before he could come to a decision, however, two of the people standing on the wires leaped onto the ground—the girl who couldn't be much older than him, and the big dude in armour.

There was a moment of pause, but then the girl launched forward and sliced through the first guard's throat with her sword, the dark cloak she had on flowing behind her as she moved.

Not a moment later a spear was thrown at high speeds by whoever was in the armour, and it tore through the second guard's midsection without resistance.

The third one had seen enough. He tried to run, but was stopped as the sound of a gunshot went off and blood spewed from his forehead.

Tatsumi looked back up to the people on the wires with wide eyes. A short and kinda small girl was aiming a gun where the third guard had been running, some smoke emitting from the end of the barrel.

_'Annihilated in just a moment?!'_ He took a few steps back until he collided with the wall. Shaking himself out of it, he grunted and began sprinting down the hallway again in search of the girl that had taken him in and provided a place to stay without a second thought. _'At least I can protect Aria-san.'_

He exited the mansion and went across the lawn, spotting a head of golden blonde hair off to the side running with someone in a guard's uniform. He went to run after them, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His head snapped behind him and was surprised at who it was. "Naruto?"

"Hey."

Well, it was definitely Naruto. But he looked bit different. The rugged white cloak he'd been wearing looked brand new, for one, plus there was a sword strapped to his back, and just the general vibe Tatsumi got from him was different. He pushed it to the back of his mind, that didn't matter right now. "Come on." He urged, shrugging his hand off and beginning to run in the direction he'd seen Aria. "We need to protect Aria-san."

"Right."

They caught up to them rather quickly. "Aria-san!" Tatsumi called out. The girl and the guard paused and turned, showing their surprise when they saw the two of them. He slowed down his pace, but Naruto kept running.

"Keep moving unless you want to die!" The blond shouted, getting in front of Aria and leading the way as they followed him.

There was a shed in the distance, probably only a hundred metres away. They came to a stop in front of it. "You two." The guard said, gesturing to Naruto and Tatsumi. "Keep the enemies occupied, we'll go into the warehouse until the other guards and the authorities arrive."

He turned to where they'd ran from, probably looking for anyone coming, and as soon as he did the end of a sword protruded from his chest. His coughs and gargles were muffled by a hand, before he was sent to the ground to lay in his own blood.

Tatsumi looked to Naruto to see the blond flicking blood off of his blade. "Naruto?! Why did you-?!"

"Because." The blond interrupted with a smirk. "You're supposed to kill your enemies, aren't you?"

"Enemies..." Tatsumi began to move backwards with Aria behind him. "Don't tell me you're one of them." He ground his teeth together and unsheathed his sword. "Even after they took you in, you'd betray them like that?"

A soft thud drew his attention towards the girl he'd seen taking out the guards earlier. He could see her face clearer now, and she was definitely the one from the poster—Akame. Under her dark cloak was a black minidress, with a white collar and a red tie that matched her eyes. Covering her hands was a pair of black gloves, and over them were red gauntlets. Her expression was stoic, and her eyes gave away nothing.

_'Two of them.'_ Tatsumi held his sword in front of him tightly. He was outnumbered and at a disadvantage, but he wasn't going to just leave Aria to protect herself, she'd die.

She burst towards him. "Not a target." She murmured loud enough for them to all hear. The next thing he knew, she was using his shoulder as a stepping stone and leaped off of it at Aria.

He grunted and went after her.

Aria fell to the ground, looking up at Akame with panic and fear. She raised her sword and went to swing. "Wait damn it!" Tatsumi got between them just in time and swung his own sword quicker, making her jump back in order to avoid it. He quickly shot a glance to Naruto, but the blond was just standing off to the side. His sword was sheathed over his back and his arms were crossed, just watching the events.

If he lived through this, Tatsumi was going to teach him a lesson.

"You're not a target." Akame said to him and dragged his attention back to the matter at hand. "There's no need to kill you."

"But you're going to kill this girl, aren't you?!"

"Uh huh."

"Just uh huh?" Tatsumi was a bit flabbergasted at how easily she said it.

"You know." Akame continued. "If you keep getting in the way, I'll kill you too."

"Like I'd run just because of that." The tension in the air began to rise as they stared each other down. _'She's not someone I can beat... but I can't be worrying about that.'_ He shifted his position. _'If I can't even save a single girl, how can I save a whole village in the first place?'_

They both charged at each other simultaneously. Their blades met in the middle, and on the rebound, Tatsumi swung for her legs, but she flipped over the strike. On her descent, she planted her feet on his back and pushed, making him stumble.

When he came back around, her sword was sticking into his chest, his sword flinging out of his hands as a knee-jerk reaction. "Ack!" She pushed and he took a tumble.

"TATSUMI!" Aria's scream rang in his ears.

Akame hadn't gotten him, that was for sure. He waited for a moment, to see if she would come closer so he'd have another shot, but she didn't. Planting his hand on the ground, he began to push himself up. "You won't even let your guard down and approach me?"

"I didn't feel it cut flesh."

He reached under the sweater he was wearing and brought it out—the idol of his village's god that the old man had given him. The middle of it was busted open from Akame's sword, but it had saved his life. "Heh, looks like the guys from the village protected me."

"Eliminate."

She charged at him again and Tatsumi held up his free hand in a stopping gesture; he didn't have anything to defend himself. "Wait a second!" He shouted. "You guys are after the money, right? Then let this innocent girl go! It's not like we're in a war or something!" She didn't even flinch or even seem to acknowledge his words. She was right in front of him now, her sword flying towards his neck. _'Shit, she's not listening to a word I say!'_

Something screeched, loudly, and not in an ear-piercing annoying way. Akame retracted her sword, and not even a second later, something golden zipped by and the ground in between them opened up; it was like something had torn through it.

"Oi oi, Akame." That was Naruto's voice. Tatsumi looked over to see the blond sheathing his sword on his back. A trench in the ground had started at his feet and it went in between him and Akame, going further and further until it was out of sight. He could only assume that whatever that gold thing was had came from him, and that it had made his would-be killer stop. "You don't need to kill him."

"Yeah." That voice was almost as familiar. Tatsumi turned back to where Akame was to see a taller woman with her arm slung around the shorter girl, ears poking out of her blonde hair. "Besides, the lad's been a bit unlucky."

"W-wait.." Tatsumi glared at her and pointed an accusing finger. "You're the boobs!"

"Yep." She grinned at him. "The beautiful onee-san from that time."

She was different, not just because of the ears. Her hands had been replaced with claws as well. Other than that she looked relatively the same—she still had a large bust that was barely covered and a scarf around her neck.

"Tatsumi." His attention shifted back towards Naruto, the blond walking past Aria and towards the shed doors with the chick who'd stolen his money bounding over.

"Naruto, why'd you stop her from killing me?"

"Because of this." He nodded to the other blonde and she busted the doors open easily, despite the lock and how tough they looked. "This is what you were just protecting, Tatsumi. I thought you should at least know what you were throwing your life away for."

He didn't know what to do. They could be luring him into a trap. _'But what would be the reason for that?'_ He reasoned with himself. They'd had him. Akame had been about to slice his neck open, and he would have been nothing but a corpse to be forgotten without so much as a second thought. But she'd been stopped.

Then it hit him. The foul stench of blood and death; it was like a stain in the air, and it was strong. He began to move towards the door, idly noticing Aria's dirty look at the other two blondes.

"You told us not to kill an innocent girl, but can you still say that after seeing this?" She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms as he got to her. "Take a look. This is the darkness of the capital."

"Wh..." Tatsumi couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a torture room. Corpses were strung up all around, flesh rotting and falling off, their bodies missing at least one or two limbs, some even being decapitated. Around the edges of the room were cages with people still inside, looking crazy and wild-eyed. There was racks of tools—machetes, saws, chains, and more. In the middle was a table that had someone strapped to it, but he couldn't tell if they were alive or not; they weren't moving.

Near that was an Iron Chair, and right beside that was an Iron Maiden. Scattered around were some boards with others strapped to them, some clearly dead and others were questionable, there was even a device that held up a few bodies by tying wires around their necks. They'd probably been put there when they'd still been alive.

"WHAT IS THIS?!"

"The true nature of this household." She answered calmly. "They lure people who come from the country with their sweet words and subject them to their hobby of torture and toy with them until they die."

During her explanation, Tatsumi had noticed something very familiar—someone, rather. Their hands were bound by wood, which was attached to rope that went up to the ceiling and let their body hang and dangle in the air.

"Sayo?" He took a few steps closer into the place. "Hey, Sayo." Her right leg was missing and her lower half was charred, like she'd been burnt, with bruises and large cuts all over the rest of her. "Sayo!"

"So there was someone you knew."

Tatsumi had heard her comment, but it was low and quiet, like he was trying to block everything out. He faintly heard the sound of a sword being drawn, along with Naruto speaking: "And just where do you think you're going?"

He managed to compose himself enough to ask a question. "The people of this house did this?"

"Yeah." Her voice was a bit clearer and easier to understand, getting progressively so with each word she spoke. "The guards were keeping quiet about it so they're just as guilty."

"It... It's a lie!" Aria shouted in defiance. Tatsumi twitched a bit at her voice. "I didn't know a place like this even existed. You've got to believe me, Tatsumi!"

"T-Tatstumi..." He'd recognise that voice anywhere, but it was weak, broken. His head snapped in the direction it had come from and his eyes widened in shock. "Tatsumi, right? It's me..."

"Ieyasu!?"

He was bloody and beaten, gripping one of the metal bars of the cage he was in. His arms and legs shook, like it was taking all of his effort just to stand and talk. He had the same look that everyone else trapped in the cages had, but there was still some genuine emotions in his eyes. "That girl invited Sayo and I..." He sounded like he hadn't had any water to drink in days. "And after we ate, we lost consciousness, and we were here when we came to." His grip on the bar tightened and his lips curled back into a snarl. "Th-that girl... she tortured Sayo to death!"

"What's so wrong?" Aria snapped. Tatsumi was still standing in the torture room, just looking at Ieyasu when he heard her start speaking. Her voice was much more malicious and angry. "They're just worthless hicks from the country! The same as cattle! I should be free to treat them however I want! Besides, that girl was so impertinent for having such straight hair for a farm animal, even though I'm troubled with such unruly hair! That's why I agonized her so meticulously! In fact, she should be grateful I took such good care of her!"

"You're such a stupid bitch." Naruto remarked.

"Mhm." Apparently the blonde woman of Night Raid agreed with him. "Sorry for getting in your way, Akame."

"Eliminate."

"Wait." Tatsumi began to walk out of the torture room. He wasn't going to let someone else kill Aria. She'd tortured and killed one of _his_ friends._  
><em>

"Don't tell me you're still trying to save her."

He moved past her, Akame, and then Naruto, who was much closer to Aria than the other two.

"No." When he was close enough, he grabbed the handle of his sword from where it was sheathed on his back and yanked it out, slicing at the girl with all the hatred and anger he had for her. "I'll kill her!" The steel went through her small waist and stomach so easily it was almost laughable. Her blood burst out, spraying through the air and coating the blade.

"Ah?"

Even as she fell to the ground, even with that pathetically shocked and pained look on her face, Tatsumi didn't feel any better. But he still wanted to do it again. He wanted to make her feel the pain of being sliced open over and over.

Her body thumped as it collided with the ground. He sheathed his sword and just glared at her corpse. That is, until he heard someone cough and gag.

Tatsumi turned his head and saw his life long friend bent over in the cage, hand over his mouth with his body cringing and lurching. "What's wrong Ieyasu?" He shouted and ran over, followed by the three members of Night Raid.

"Hold on." Naruto stepped in front of them. His sword had a faint, almost unnoticeable golden aura around it as he swung and cut through the metal bars like a knife would through butter.

Tatsumi pushed past him and hauled up Ieyasu, carrying him out of the damned cage and laying him down just outside of it, uncaring that he was getting all of Ieyasu's blood and muck on him.

"It's the last stages of Lubora disease." Akame informed him, but remained disinterested. "The Mistress here enjoyed putting people on drugs and writing how they were doing in a diary. He can't be saved."

Naruto gave him a glance and a quick, sympathetic smile as he sheathed his own sword over his back, but remained silent.

"Tatsumi." His attention came back around to the dying Ieyasu. Despite all that he'd gone through, the guy had a grin on his face, like he'd won a bet. Maybe he'd vowed to live longer than Aria would, that seemed like something he'd do, regardless of the situation. And he had. "You know, Sayo... she didn't submit to that fucking girl, even at the very end. It was so cool." His voice was still raspy, dry and weak, but Ieyasu didn't seem bothered by it. "So for my death, this Ieyasu-sama here will also keep it real."

He brought his hand up hand made a fist, the grin still on his face, and Tatsumi caught it when he felt Ieyasu's body go limp in his arms.

"It seems he was keeping himself alive by willpower alone."

Tatsumi took in Akame's words and hugged Ieyasu's body, trembling and trying not to ball his eyes out in front of everyone. "What's wrong with the capital?"

There was a moment of silence, followed by a few footsteps and the black-haired girl's words: "Let's go."

The only remaining alive blonde woman hummed to herself. "Hey, why don't we bring the lad back with us? We could always use an extra hand, and he's not too bad."

"Hm?"

"Yeah." Naruto agreed. Tatsumi felt himself being hauled and placed on someone's shoulder. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Oi." He blinked a few times and realised that Naruto was carrying him over his shoulder as they began to leave the warehouse with his friends' bodies inside. He began to struggle and push himself out of his grip, but the blond held strong. "Naruto, let me go!"

"Quit it." He grunted and tightened his grip.

"No! I have to bury them and make their graves!"

"Don't worry about that." Naruto sounded annoyed, and he must have been; he started to dig and grind his knuckles into the back of Tatsumi's knee as a counter-measure to his struggling. "Stop and I'll stop." He kept going for a few moments, but it soon became too much and quit, the blond stopping a moment later. "Anyway, Leone'll bring them back to the base later on."

Tatsumi suddenly felt weightless, wind whipping at his ears, then he felt a pair of arms supporting his back and under his legs. "Yeah." He looked up at the woman—Leone—and her cheerful smile. "You bet."

Well, it was a much better view being carried by her, at least.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter one done!<strong>

**Watched and finished the current episodes for the anime of this that are out at the moment and loved it, so I thought why not make a fic about it? Could be entertaining, and I actually did enjoy writing this.**

**I know, Naruto didn't really have much of an effect on the things that took place in this chapter. But there wasn't much I could really work with considering it's only the first chapter, and I'm not a good enough writer to make it completely OC. So sorry.**

**Anyway, the pairing's going to be NarutoxAkame, as I imagine most for this crossover will be. (No, it's not going to be a "le hurr u like me i like u let's get married durr" type deal).**

**There's also some questions that'll probably get asked, and I might as well answer them now;**

**No, Naruto isn't just a blond-haired, blue-eyed OC.**

**No, Konoha doesn't exist in this (prominently, anyway). **

**Yes, there might be other Naruto characters that show up, but they won't obnoxiously flood in; just a handful of them.**

**No, I won't make it a harem; that's pretty much a fact for any story I'll write, I just find them ridiculous. Albeit, there are some I've enjoyed reading.**

**No, I won't go into so much detail about something that it bores you beyond comprehension. I'll mention the things that I find need mentioning.**

**No, it won't be mainly from Tatsumi's POV (though he will get a nice chunk of it, he is the main character from the series). It'll mainly be from Naruto and/or Akame's, but it will vary to others as well.**

**No, characters will not be bashed. Same applies for any of my other fics. It just ruins it.**

**If you've got any other questions, either PM me or leave a review. I'll answer them in the next chapter that I release.**

**Other than that, thanks for reading, and make sure to leave a review telling me what you thought of it. Any are welcome; good, bad, criticizing, even flames telling me how shitty of a writer I am.**


	2. Second

An Assassin's Emotions Chapter 2

I don't own Naruto or Akame ga Kill.

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><p>Naruto stumbled around the base, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He passed Sheele, who was seated at a table and reading some book, and mumbled out a half-hearted response when she called out a good morning to him. He normally would have cared to say more, but he'd only just gotten up; his eyes still stung, and his gut demanded food.<p>

"You know." An arm was slung around his shoulders and his neck rolled until it softly collided with another's. "For someone who's usually got so much energy, you're pretty much useless in the mornings."

Naruto put a minimal amount of effort into huffing through his nose. "I only had a couple of hours sleep, Leone." He leaned his weight onto her and kept taking steps forward. So long as she didn't hinder his progress on his journey for food—or more specifically, ramen—then he was fine with letting the older and slightly taller girl take his weight.

"You should be used to it by now." She sighed and he could imagine her eyes rolling. "You've been in Night Raid for nearly two months, Naruto. None of us really get too much sleep."

"Yeah." He covered his mouth and stifled a yawn. "So how's Tatsumi anyway?"

"N'awww." Leone pinched his cheek and stretched it. "Is little Naru-chan worried about our new member?"

"I'm not little!" He tried to protest, but the noise that his mouth produced sounded ridiculous even to himself. Leone chortled and he tore himself away from her. He rubbed his cheek a bit before continuing, much more awake than before. "And yeah, I am. He looked destroyed when he saw his two friends."

"He's getting better." She answered his question. "He made graves for them not far from the guest house he's staying in." A few moments of silence ensued as the two kept walking. "I'll be showing him around the base and introducing him to everyone today, too."

"So he decided to actually join us then?"

Tatsumi had seemed pretty strongly against the idea of joining Night Raid after they'd attacked Aria's household. To hear that he'd apparently changed his mind was a pleasant surprise—they were always low on members, and Tatsumi definitely had talent and skill; he'd been able to keep up with Akame for a bit, despite not having a Teigu.

"Well, not exactly."

It was Naruto's turn to roll his eyes. So he hadn't actually made a decision. They kept walking for a bit until they reached the kitchen and both took a seat at the table. Almost as soon as he'd sat down, a bowl was slid across to him, chopsticks resting on top of it. An aroma that could only come from one food hit his sense of smell, and he snatched up the chopsticks before starting to devour it.

"You'll choke." Akame remarked, sliding another bowl over, knowing that one wouldn't be enough.

Naruto spared her a quick glance. She didn't have her gauntlets, gloves or cloak on, and a white apron was strung over the front of her. He swallowed. "No I won't."

Akame put Leone's breakfast in front of her then moved back to the benches, snacking on random ingredients like she always did.

Bulat came in and sat down soon after, nothing covering his torso or feet. Not that Naruto really cared. This was pretty much their morning routine—Naruto would wear just a shirt, boxers and his necklace to breakfast, and Bulat would only wear pants; pretty much what they slept in the night before. The others thought it was weird, but didn't bother to bring it up anymore.

Naruto sighed and leaned back in his chair, two empty ramen bowls stacked in front of him.

"Don't you ever get tired of eating the same thing over and over, Naruto?" Lubbock had came in, fully clothed, and he lazily fell into the chair beside the blond. His green hair covered one of his intense yet care free green eyes, while red goggles rested atop his head. A white and red ringer shirt was over his torso, and over that was a fur lined green jacket, and covering his bottom half was a pair of blue jeans.

"You kidding?" He licked his lips, trying to get any left of flavour that he might have missed. "I could happily get fat and die on this stuff. Especially if Akame keeps making it."

Lubbock shook his head in amusement as Akame came around and placed his food in front of him. "Then should I stop making it?"

"Yes!"

"Yeah."

"Probably."

"NO!" Naruto cried and slammed his hand on the table in protest, glaring at Leone, Bulat and Lubbock. "Assholes."

Leone grinned at his reaction while Akame took a seat on the other side of Bulat, two bowls in front of her—probably Mine and Sheele's, they tended to show up later and Akame usually ended up eating their share. And that's exactly what she did; within a matter of moments both bowls were empty, and she was cleaning her mouth with a napkin.

"And you say that I'll choke, when you eat like that."

* * *

><p>"Huh? You haven't made your decision yet?"<p>

"Yeah, Sheele. Shower him with some warm words for me."

They were in the meeting room, according to Leone. The place was huge, so much so that the large wooden table in the middle didn't look big enough. At the end was a rug, a few metres in length and half of that in width, while off to both sides of it were two hallways.

Sheele herself was sitting on one of the chairs surrounding the table, a book in her hands. She wore a revealing, sleeveless cheongasm with detached arms, a pair of glasses were set in front of her purple eyes, and a small hat hung off to the side of her head of long purple hair; a small scar was etched onto her right cheek.

Leone, on the other hand, was standing beside him, her hand resting firmly on his head—something he couldn't help but scowl at.

"Hmm." She hummed, bringing her index finger up to her lips to show that she was thinking. "Well, now that you know the location of our hideout, you'll be killed if you don't become one of us, you know?"

Tatsumi felt his face go slack and mumbled. "That was so warming I could cry."

"It's an important decision, you should think over it carefully."

She went back to reading her book, and Tatsumi leant around, trying to snag a look at the title of it—_100 Ways to Fix Airheadedness_. He deadpanned. _'This place really is full of weirdos.'_

"Hey!" Both Tatsumi and Leone turned at the shout, and the owner of it turned out to be a short girl—the same one who had shot the guard through the head, actually. She was all pink, to say the least. She had a pink dress on, with pink frills down the middle and at the hem, pink shoes, her eyes were pink, and even her hair was pink, tied into twin-tails. The only thing that wasn't pink about her was her black stockings. "Hold on a second, Leone! Why're you letting this guy into the hideout?!"

"'Cause he's one of us." The blonde replied easily.

"He isn't one of us yet, is he?!" She snapped, the beginnings of a temper tantrum showing on her face. "He hasn't gotten the Boss' permission, either!" Her head snapped in his direction, twin-tails whipping around, glaring, and he glared right back. She turned away with a huff a moment later, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not qualified."

He recoiled a bit, eye twitching in annoyance. "Wha-"

She cut him off. "It doesn't seem like he'll be able to work with professionals like us at all." There was a haughty tone to her voice. "I can tell from looking at his face!"

"What was that?!"

"Don't worry about it." Leone put a hand firmly on his shoulder, probably to keep him from starting a fight with the pink-clad, holier-than-thou girl. She laughed a bit awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. "Mine's like that to everyone."

They left soon after, but not before Mine got in a humph.

Tatsumi followed Leone through the halls and a couple of rooms, one of which had a bunch of assorted weaponry, and outside onto a deck made of stone. He could hear grunts of effort along with wood clacking against wood not far off.

"This is the stress release area called the training grounds." Leone explained as they rounded a corner. The sounds got louder, along with dirt and gravel being messed with. She pointed ahead of them and his eyes followed her finger, surprise coming over his face at what he was seeing. "And that, is Naruto and Bulat."

They were both going at each other. Naruto had a wooden sword, while the much bigger guy—Bulat—had a wooden spear.

Naruto swung at him, but Bulat smacked it away, bunting him in the chest with the end of his wooden spear. Using his slight disorientation, Bulat brought the spear around and the blond was only just able to bring up his weapon to keep his ribs from being smashed, sliding back along the dirt and gravel from the force. A gust of wind hit Tatsumi not a moment after the strike, and realised that there must have been a lot of strength behind Bulat's swing.

"You've gotten better." Bulat commended, wiping sweat from his forehead. "You would've only died once in that."

Naruto grunted and let himself sit down on a rather large rock, fiddling with the gem hanging around his neck. "Yeah but it's still not good enough." He turned his head towards them and gave a short grin. "Hey Leone, Tatsumi."

There wasn't really anything different with him. He still wore an orange T-shirt and black pants, with the same necklace, and he could see the blond's sword sheathed and leaning against the wall. Around it were a few of spare wooden weapons, a spear and a couple swords; he assumed they broke often enough to warrant bringing spares.

Bulat span the spear around, slamming it into the ground before bending over to pick up a white towel to clear his jacked-up body of sweat. His hair was pretty weird; it was combed up into a lengthy pompadour with a heart shape at the end of it. He had a pair of white pants on, with a green belt around his waist and black boots covered his feet.

His blue eyes glinted and his lips turned upwards when he noticed them. "Hey." He moved towards them, going up the couple of stairs onto the deck and holding his hand out for Tatsumi to shake. "You're that dude from before. I'm Bulat."

Tatsumi shook his hand, trying to keep his hand from being crushed by the man's firm grip. "Eh? From before?"

"Oh right, you haven't seen me like this." He pointed to himself and smirked. "I'm the guy that was covered in the armour the first time we met."

"Ohh." Tatsumi remembered—the guy who'd thrown that spear and impaled one of the guards, and who'd also carried him when Leone had apparently gotten sick of doing so. He also remembered the armour actually looking pretty awesome, what he could see of it in the night anyway.

Leone leaned down to him, covering her mouth from Bulat's view like she was going to whisper to him, but her voice and tone didn't change much. "Be careful, he's a homo."

"Hey, hey, don't go saying that." Tatsumi froze when he noticed Bulat staring at him, his face heating up as if he was shy. "He'd misunderstand, right?"

He gulped. _'He's not denying it!'_

"Anyway, we've got more people to see." Leone said jovially, slinging her arm around his shoulder and hooking him away.

Tatsumi glanced at Naruto, who was lazily throwing the wooden sword up in the air and catching it, and something sprung to his mind—something he'd almost forgotten. "Hold on."

"Hm? What is it?"

He shrugged her arm off and began walking back, going down the few steps past Bulat, who gave him a questioning look. "Naruto."

The blond hurled the wooden weapon up in the air again, his attention focusing on Tatsumi. "Yeah?"

"That night, when I was fighting Akame, I told myself something." Naruto frowned and narrowed his eyes, the sword reaching its arc. Tatsumi scowled. "I told myself that the next time I saw you, I'd teach you a lesson!"

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><p>Naruto stretched his arm up and caught the sword on its descent, a small, lopsided grin forming on his face. He got it. "Is that right?" He get up off the rock and made his way over to his own sword, bending over to pick up one of the spare wooden ones, before chucking it towards Tatsumi who caught it. "Sounds like it could be fun. Think you can handle it?"<p>

He gave it a few swings, getting used to the weight. "You should worry more about yourself."

Off to the side, both Bulat and Leone were leaning against the wooden railing that surrounded the stone deck, watching with interest. Good, they didn't have any problems with it, not that he expected them to.

Naruto walked back closer to the rock he'd been sitting on, more of a center field, and faced him. "Whenever you're ready, Tatsumi."

The light brown-haired teen held the weapon with both hands and took in a breath, before charging at the blond. He swung and Naruto parried, jabbing him in the wrist then bringing up his foot and kicking him in the chest, making him stumble back a few steps.

Tatsumi coughed a bit, rubbing where he'd been booted. Naruto hadn't used too much force so he'd be fine. "Tsk."

"Come on, I thought you wanted to teach me a lesson."

He lurched forward, swinging, yet Naruto deflected and jabbed him in the thigh this time. Tatsumi didn't let up, keeping his attacks going; they weren't sloppy or overly aggressive, his swings were with purpose, looking for a spot he could hit, while his eyes flickered around and tried to determine what the blond's next move would be; the brown-haired teen had genuine skill and actually knew what he was doing.

Naruto was just better. And faster.

Tatsumi extended his arm, the wooden sword going straight forward, the point aimed to smash into the assassin's ribs.

Naruto brought his own sword up to bat it away, and his opponent saw it almost instantly; he changed his attack, swinging downwards and slamming it into the blond's fingers. But that was his mistake. He had too much focus for that one move.

Naruto flinched, reflexively dropping the wooden sword. He took a step forward, getting into Tatsumi's personal space, brought up his elbow and slammed it into the brunette's nose with a crack.

Tatsumi recoiled and stumbled back, his free hand coming up and grabbing his nose. That'd definitely hurt him, maybe even breaking his nose.

"That was cheap." Tatsumi grunted, his voice different from his nose being blocked.

Naruto bent down to pick his sword back up. "So?" He shrugged. "You think someone who's trying to kill you is going to care if their moves are cheap or not?" Flexing his stinging fingers, his grip tightened. "Are you done?"

"No." Tatsumi took his hand away and sniffed, some blood running from his nose kind of off-looking nose that he wiped away quickly. He looked like he was a bit dazed from the blow still, but he was focused enough.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. If he wasn't going to stop there, then he had to go harder. The blond went on the offensive this time, clearing the few feet that was in between them in no time. He slashed at Tatsumi's chest, his opponent only barely blocking it in time.

He didn't let up, swinging upwards and catching the brunette under the chin.

Tatsumi's head snapped back and Naruto moved forward, his wooden sword roughly resting on his neck while his hand went out and snatched the other teen's wrist, twisting it hard enough to cause some pain. "I win."

"Eh?"

Naruto gave a short grin and let him go, confiscating the sword so he didn't try and attack. "I win. You lose. You'd have died then if this was a real fight, no disputing that. Your neck would be open for everyone to see." He brought up his finger and made a slicing motion across his neck to signify his words. "Bam, no more Tatsumi."

"W-wait a minute!" He furrowed his brows. "I want a re match then!"

"Nope. Not today."

"Oh come on, best of 3!"

"Nuh-uh." Naruto brought his hand up and poked him directly in the nose, making Tatsumi flinch back in pain and hold it. "Besides, that needs to be put back into place. And you need to clean yourself up, you've got blood on your clothes."

The brunette looked down, noticing the splotches of blood on his attire that had undoubtedly come from his nose. Now that he was more conscious of it, along with the adrenaline leaving his system, he groaned. "What'd you do to it?"

"Broke it, probably." Bulat commented. He and Leone were making their way towards them, the blonde woman giving Naruto an annoyed look. "Here, move your hand. I'll put it back."

"Put it back?" Tatsumi blanched and felt around, figuring out that his nose was actually at an odd angle. "Shit." Bulat moved his hands away, his grip lasting a bit long, before his strong hands went up to the brunette's nose. "Will it hurt?"

"You'll find out." Bulat's arms flexed and a loud crack followed, with Tatsumi moving back rapidly, grunting and groaning, holding his nose again while blood flowed from it. He reached up onto his shoulder and grabbed his towel, throwing it to the pained teen. "Use that to stop the blood."

Tatsumi caught it and put it under his nose, still groaning to himself. Naruto stepped over and slung an arm around him. "Oh don't be such a baby, Tatsumi. It's not even that bad."

He got a glare in return.

* * *

><p>"Welcome to the path of carnage, Tatsumi." Boss—or Najenda; her real name—held out towards the brunette.<p>

He was standing in the middle, surrounded by the members of Night Raid. The silver-haired leader herself was at the front, seated on a chair; to her right was Leone, then Mine, Sheele, Naruto, Lubbock, Akame, and to finish off the circle was Bulat, all standing.

Akame watched as Tatsumi brought up his hand, like he was going to shake the mechanical arm, but Lubbock suddenly shouted: "Najenda-san, intruders!"

"How many?"

"According to the reaction from my barrier, around fourteen." Lubbock looked back down at his gloved hands, focusing on his Teigu, fingers twitching. "They've all infiltrated close to the hideout."

"They're good." Najenda's hands rested on the arms of her chair. "To sniff out this place means they're probably mercenaries from another race. There's no other way." She flicked her lighter, igniting the end of the cigarette she'd placed in her mouth. "This is an emergency sortie. Don't let any of them live."

The atmosphere in the room had changed. Instead of the casual, yet still somewhat serious feel to it, it had been replaced by a much colder and intimidating aura—one that demanded the deaths of whoever had the gall to intrude on their property.

Aside from Tatsumi, they all burst out through the floodgates, pairing off; Mine and Sheele; Lubbock and Leone; and Akame followed closely after Naruto, while Bulat went off on his own—though that didn't really matter much; he could easily take care of himself, and the pairs would probably split up some time during the sortie anyway.

The blond's sheathed weapon clattered around on his back as he ran. It was slightly bigger than hers—longer and wider. But not massively so.

They made it out of the base, going down a dirt path that wound through the trees.

"So." Naruto began, slowing down so that she could catch up and run alongside him instead of trailing behind. "How many do you think we'll run into?"

He didn't look very serious, though she hadn't expected him to; in fact, he had a small carefree smirk on his face. Even through all the missions they'd been through since he'd joined, no matter how bad, grim, or how much effort they demanded, he never seemed to take it with full seriousness. It irked her a bit. "I don't know, a few? Four maybe."

"Then let's make a bet." He glanced at her, a gleam in his blue eyes. "If I win, then you make me ramen whenever I want, forever. No complaints." Akame's eyes narrowed and she scowled slightly, that could get very taxing very quickly. "But if I lose, you don't _have _to make me ramen ever again if you don't want to."

_'He's confident.'_ Risking something like that must have been pretty heavy for him. The more logical side of her was saying not to fall into it, that it was bait. But the idea of her not having to make him ramen ever again if she didn't want to was attractive, plus the concept of winning. "How many do you think we'll run into?"

"Six." Naruto raised his fist towards her. "Deal?"

Akame contemplated it some more, but decided to go for it in the end. She was pretty much already doing what he wanted if he won anyway. Raising the hand not occupied by her katana, she made it into a fist and bumped it against his. "Deal."

He grinned in a way that strangely made her regret the decision. Speeding up, he said loudly and jovially. "Come on Akame, I'm gonna want some when this is over!"

She tsked, picking up her own pace. "That's only if you win."

The sun glared down at them as they ran, zipping through trees, going from one path to another. Naruto made a sudden turn, grabbing the hilt of his sword, beginning to unsheathe it, and rushing head first through some shrubbery.

Akame matched his movements and followed him, reaffirming her grip on _Murasame_. As she'd expected, there was a group of the intruders, but they weren't directly on the other side like she had hoped—not anymore, at least. They—five of them—had moved, out of surprise and shock, a good twenty or so feet away.

On the other side of the rather wide path made of rock and dirt was Naruto, wrenching his vibrantly glowing golden blade from one of their dead. She could only assume that the blond had ran the guy through after smashing his way through the shrubbery.

Naruto turned and grinned at her, resting his sword on his shoulder, golden embers flickering off of it like a flame. Around his neck, the gem he always had on glowed brightly, even in the daylight. "See? There's six of them."

Akame breathed out harshly through her nose. She really shouldn't have fallen for the bait. "I can count."

Her attention shifted to the five remaining intruders; four guys, one girl, all looking around their mid-twenties and a bit older. They wore a similar attire; either brown or creamy pants, and a a long skirt for the girl along with a flimsy piece of material that covered her breasts, while none of the men wore shirts. On a couple of their heads was a piece of white cloth, fitting on kind of like a hat in order to protect them from the sun.

"So three each?"

"Three each." She agreed.

"Tch." One of the men grunted, in the middle of two others—brown hair, black eyes, a burly build, with a long meat cleaver held in his right hand. "Kill the blond fucker, but leave the chick alive, and try not too cut her up too bad. She could be fun later."

They readied their respective steel weapons, and Akame took the chance to lunge forward, slicing out her Teigu and zipping through them, opening their throats before they even had the chance to react. Blood sprayed and they coughed and gurgled, two of them slamming on the ground as they died. Her third target hadn't died from it and tried to talk, but couldn't produce any sounds; marks began to spread over his body, his eyes rolled, and he joined his friends on the ground.

Murasame clicked back into its sheath and Akame turned her head when footsteps began to rapidly move towards her. The girl of the group was charging at her, dagger in hand, but she didn't get very far.

Naruto swung his sword down. A vertical beam of golden energy, about ten feet tall, shot forward, tearing up the ground and ripping directly through the middle of the woman. Her blood spewed from both her halves; her right half falling to the ground almost immediately, while the left one continued on for a few hops before collapsing. The look on her face when she'd died hadn't been shock or surprise, but one of a hardened killer—she'd had no clue that she was going to be split in half.

"F-fuck this!" There was one more left, and he was panicking. His broadsword gripped in his hand, he ran.

Naruto went after him, easily clearing the somewhat short distance between them in a few moments, running his sword through the man's back and out through his chest, right where the heart was. "Why you bothered trying to run, I have no idea." The vibrant glow surrounding his bit of steel stopped, along with his necklace, and it was pulled out from the body that soon hit the floor like the others.

"You'd run in that kind of situation, too."

"Nuh-uh." He denied as he sheathed his sword. "If I knew I was going to die anyway, then I'd stay and fight, just to see what would happen."

In the distance, near a cliff side, a long beam of light burst into existence, rapidly descending on a target. Almost as soon as the tip of it had gone out of Akame's eyesight a loud boom sounded out. Undoubtedly Mine's work. "We should meet up with the others."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed with a nod, a smirk forming on his face. "But after that, I expect you to deliver on our bet."

* * *

><p>There was a source of negative emotions nearby, he could feel it—for as long as he remembered he'd been able to sense them. The source itself wasn't anything special, just the usual malice and intent to kill.<p>

Naruto altered his course a tad, taking more of a direct route towards it, Akame keeping track beside him. Either it was another of the intruders alone, or someone in Night Raid was fighting them. Both possibilities meant that he was going that way. If there was a fight happening, he could really only assume that Tatsumi was in on it seeing as the negative emotions were still alive. The others would have dealt with this tier of intruder before he'd even noticed it.

As they began to close in on it, he heard shouting: "-THESE ARE THE MOVES WE BUILT UP!"

He sided up against a tree, poking his head around and over the layer of bushes. There was a small clearing—barely fifteen meters in diameter—with Tatsumi in the middle, some burly looking guy on the ground beneath him, a diagonal slash going across his chest and a wolf mask over his head. Or maybe that was his head. He couldn't really tell.

Akame slid up beside him, peering over at the two.

"I beg of you!" The wolf-man-masked-thing bellowed deeply, grasping at what he could of his wound. "Let me go! If I die, my village won't survive!" Like a trigger, Tatsumi was set off by what he'd said. He stood stock still and his face went slack. The intruder noticed it and took advantage immediately, snatching up his fallen broadsword and charging, laughing obnoxiously as he did so. "You're naive, young boy! I'll have you die for my clan!"

Akame made a move to go and intervene, unsheathing Murasame. Naruto grabbed her shoulder firmly, stopping her from doing just that. Tatsumi could easily deal with someone like this, and if he couldn't—well, he'd probably die. He had faith that the brunette wouldn't die so easily though.

Just as the intruder was getting within range, Tatsumi snapped out of his daze. It was like he'd been daydreaming, he was twitchy and panicky at seeing his attacker closing in, but he reacted decently enough.

The intruder's broadsword clattered along the grass and dirt, Tatsumi having knocked it out of his hands despite the firm grip he no doubt would of had. Grunting, he acted swiftly, raising his own sword above his head with both hands before bringing it down, slicing straight down the middle of the burly body. Blood sprayed forth, some splashing onto Tatsumi's face and clothes, while the owner of the red liquid slumped onto the ground.

"Naruto." Said blond looked back down at Akame, the usual blank expression she carried firmly plastered on her face. "Why did you stop me?"

He let go of her shoulder and scratched the back of his head, moving to push through the bushes, a half-smile worming its way on. "Tatsumi can take care of himself, y'know. You don't need to cover his ass just because he's new."

"Hiya!" Something slammed down onto the earth not far away from them, shouting enthusiastically. Naruto's eyes snapped over to where it had came from to see Bulat, his Teigu—_Incrusio_—covering his entire body while the spear that he could use because of it was raised proudly in the air. "The enemy came running over here, right?! Leave the rest to me!"

Akame deadpanned as they stopped a respectable distance form where Tatsumi was stood. "It's already over."

"Come on." Naruto rolled his eyes when Bulat deflated. "Let's get back. I'm hungry."

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2 done!<strong>

**High school and my course is almost over for me, so hopefully I'll be able to pump out some more chapters in less time. But I'm not making any promises, I still have a part time job.**

**Thanks for reading, and happy Halloween for when the 31st hits!**


	3. Third

An Assassin's Emotions Chapter 3.

I don't own Naruto or Akame ga Kill.

* * *

><p><em>'He was toying with me.'<em> Tatsumi gripped the potato, peeling it with the knife held in his other, mulling over his little fight with the blond assassin. No matter what way he looked at it, no matter how many times he thought of it from a different perspective, Naruto hadn't put much effort into it at all. His attacks had been put down and countered easily, his defence pretty much non-existent to the blond, and even when he'd managed to hit him a single time not only was it turned against him, but he felt like he only managed it because Naruto let him.

He dumped the peeled potato in with the others and grabbed a new one, starting anew.

Honestly, he'd only fought Naruto because he had told himself during the raid on Aria's mansion that if he made it out alive, he'd teach him a lesson. Why? For deceiving him like that, and because the bored look he had during his fight with Akame annoyed him. He still had to, really, seeing as he'd gotten his ass kicked instead, but he wasn't going to go and start another fight with the blond any time soon.

"Tatsumi." He snapped out of his thoughts, bringing his attention to Akame, who swallowed a couple of grapes and an olive in one go. Right, he'd been paired with the girl by Boss after the sortie so he could learn. Her hair was tied into a long ponytail and she had a white apron over her clothes. "Stop spacing out, you'll cut yourself. I don't want blood on the food."

"Yeah." He finished peeling and dumped the potato. "Damn it this sucks. All I've done is cook, cook, and cook some more."

"It can't be helped." She grabbed another grape, twirling it between her thumb and forefinger before before chucking it in her mouth. "I'm responsible for cooking the meals at the base, so that duty falls onto you as well." Placing both of her hands on the counter, she shook her head. "Be glad that you don't have to make Naruto ramen whenever he feels like it."

"That bad?"

"Worse."

"Hey, Tatsumi!" He physically twitched at the teasing lilt in the voice. "That apron really suits a newcomer like you well."

Spinning around, knife still in hand, he was surprised to not only just see Mine, but Bulat, Lubbock and Sheele as well. "Eh? Are you all going somewhere?"

"Yep." Mine answered. "A request to kill someone in the Capital came in."

"A request, huh." An image of Najenda popped into his head, remembering when she'd explained that Night Raid accepted requests from the public for assassinations and that he'd be getting one soon enough. "Where's Naruto? Wouldn't he usually go along with you?"

"Usually." Lubbock gained a sneaky grin, giving Tatsumi the feeling that he knew something none of the others did. "But he's preoccupied with some stuff right now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tatsumi." Sheele broke in, her eyes closed behind her glasses and a somewhat awkward smile on her face. "Please take good care of the place while we're gone."

"Ah... yeah, sure."

"You're the new house maid." Mine couldn't help butting in with a snicker. "So just stay here and chop cucumbers while we go do our job in the Capital." Tatsumi strangled the knife in his hand as she turned and left with the other three, catching one more glimpse of her stupid, smug grin. "Later~"

Once they were out of sight, Akame reached up and untied the piece of fabric that was keeping her hair in a ponytail. "Okay." Beginning to walk over to where the hangers were, she reached behind and undid the apron, slipping it off. "Now, shall we go take some lives?"

Tatsumi deadpanned. "You mean hunting for dinner, right?"

"Oh good, you understand."

* * *

><p>He came into the room, hands interlocked behind his head of blond hair.<p>

Akame eyed him suspiciously as he sat down on the opposite side of the table, beside Najenda. He'd been doing it for a while, spending entire days locked away in his room every now and then, only coming out for food. Only Lubbock knew what he got up to in there, or seemed to anyway. Despite herself, she wanted to know what it was that kept him so occupied. The others did as well, but neither of the two would say a word on the matter.

Leone leaned over the table, resting her chin on her palm, all but glaring at him. "What have you been doing all day?"

Naruto picked up the chopsticks, breaking them into two, and stuffed down a mouthful of the Koga tuna fish ramen she'd made. "It's good." Quickly swallowing, he stuffed down some more, sighing in bliss. "So how many did Tatsumi catch?"

"Just two." Now that everyone was there, Najenda began to eat her own fill, sending amused glances at the visibly annoyed and twitching Leone. "But he did well for his first time."

Beside her, Leone huffed and relented, starting to eat. The blond woman was stubborn, but Naruto was even more so. He wouldn't do something if he didn't want to.

Akame placed her hands on either side of the tuna's head in front of her, delicately picking it up with the juices staining her hands, fantasizing about the sweet and succulent taste it had, she chipped in her two cents. "It's not good enough."

"Go easy on him." Naruto picked up what was probably one of the last tuna slices in his bowl, brought it up and dangled it above his mouth before dropping it down the chute. "I only got one on my first try."

Najenda dropped her chopsticks into her empty rice bowl. "You were also a lot more obnoxious and loud then."

Resisting the urge to salivate, Akame added. "And you tried to use your Teigu to force them out of the water."

Tatsumi deadpanned. "Seriously...?"

"Well..." Naruto moved his first bowl over and grabbed the next one. "It did kinda work."

Akame lifted the tuna up towards her some more, getting a waft of the amazing smell. "You obliterated nearly all of them."

He tsked and they all continued on with the meal, Akame taking her first bite into the tuna and loving the sensations it gave her taste buds. Only when dinner was coming to a close did conversation kick back up again.

"Leone." Najenda leaned back on the wooden chair, eyeing the blonde. "Tell me about the request you received a few days ago."

Pausing only for a brief moment to gather her wits, Leone began the explanation; from who the targets were—Ogre; a captain, and Gamal; an oil merchant—to the former accepting bribes from the latter and framing innocent people in his place, until she finally dumped the bag of gold she got from the client on the table.

Tatsumi stood out of his chair, staring at the bag with surprise. "That's a lot of money." He said. "I wonder how they saved up so much."

Leone's jaw clenched. "I caught the scent of disease on her... she must have sold her body over and over to earn all of this."

The brown-haired teen lowered his head. "That's..."

Najenda cut him off. "Did you check out her story?"

"Yeah. I observed them from the attic of the merchant's shop. They're guilty."

In the end, the request was accepted. Ogre and Gamal would be killed for their crimes.

* * *

><p><em>"Naruto."<em>

_The blond quit playing with the chopsticks in his empty bowl. Leone, Akame and Tatsumi had not long left to go after Ogre and Gamal, leaving him there as he'd said he wasn't going, earning Akame's ire as it would make the mission much easier if he went seeing as he wasn't on any of the wanted posters. "Yeah Boss?"  
><em>

_"You're going to follow Tatsumi, aren't you?"_

_He shook his head and smirked. She could see through his deception like that, no matter how good he considered himself to be at it. "That easy to tell? Nee-chan would be disappointed, I should step up my game."_

_Flicking the fine cigarette and breathing smoke out of her mouth, her lips turned up in amusement. "Sorry kid, you're a bit too young to make a fool out of me." He rolled his eyes at being called a kid, he was only a year off being considered an adult anyway. "But it's better this way."  
><em>

_"Yeah." Naruto stood up, slowly making his way towards the door so he could get to his room and grab a few things. "I didn't want to lead either of them on, but I couldn't tell them without Tatsumi hearing, and the whole point is that he doesn't know."_

Knowing Leone, if she had managed to catch on that he was there, she'd go looking for him and demand to know why. So until she left Tatsumi to his own devices, he'd stayed far away from them. Luckily, he hadn't had to do it for too long, and was lurking in the shadows after the brown-haired teen by the time the moon was in full swing.

He went along the roof tops, following Tatsumi and Ogre as they went to a more secluded place, making sure to keep far enough away that he wouldn't be detected, but close enough so that he could interfere if he needed to.

Naruto smiled when Tatsumi got on his knees and begged, making Ogre think that he was there for something else entirely, and silently approved of his move when he sped forward and sliced through the captain's abdomen, but he retracted said approval almost instantly when Tatsumi thought Ogre—as physically big as he was—had died just from that.

After a surprise attack from the still alive captain, the fight went on and Naruto found himself losing interest. Sure, they were both talented and strong with a sword, but the blond had seen and been a part of plenty of those, so it just became rather bland and boring.

He flicked the gem around his neck and brought his attention back to the fight when Tatsumi came flying down, his blade going straight through Ogre's torso as he landed, definitely deep enough to kill him. Naruto was able to confirm his demise for himself when the captain's negative emotions began to fade until they were naught.

Stretching to get the kinks out from standing in a single spot for so long, he grinned. "Nothing to worry about. Oh well."

Naruto went along the rooftops after him, waiting until they were a good distance away from Ogre's unattended corpse before jumping down behind Tatsumi. It wasn't like it mattered whether he found out if he'd been watched over anymore.

Didn't mean he couldn't have any fun with it.

Deliberately making his voice deeper and as unrecognisable as he could, he stalked up behind the teen. "Oi, you." Tatsumi flinched, his hand instinctively twitching towards where his broadsword was hidden and sheathed. Naruto roughly grabbed his shoulder. "And why are you sulking around so suspiciously?"

Naruto watched as his head turned towards him, some anxiousness on his face, which quickly turned into surprise when he realised who it was. "Eh?"

"Hey."

"N-Naruto?" He deflated, breathing out heavily through his nose as the blond's hand went back to his side. "I thought you were someone else. But what are you doing here?" His lips thinned. "I thought you had better things to do."

Shrugging, Naruto began to walk, the few inches shorter Tatsumi falling in step beside him. "I lied." He said simply. "Akame and Leone can handle someone like Gamal without an issue, so there wasn't much left for me to do other than make sure you came back alive. The death rate for first missions is significantly higher than others."

"But." He scratched the back of his head. "What was the point of lying? You could've done the same without having to do that."

"Because it wouldn't have been the same." Naruto began to explain. "If you had have known that I was there, ready to jump in if things went south, you wouldn't have fought like you did even if you tried. You might have actually made a mistake that would make me interfere." Tatsumi frowned. "Oh don't be such a spoil sport. Come on, you've still got to make your report."

* * *

><p>They'd gotten a new request, one for a relative of the Prime Minister—a guy called Iwokaru. Using the Minister's name, he abducted girls from the Capital and beat them to death, with his five bodyguards also joining in on it and making them just as guilty.<p>

With the exception of Najenda—who was at the base—Tatsumi and Mine—who had split off earlier so the pink-haired girl could get a vantage point, Tatsumi going with her because he was now under her care—Naruto ran along through the forest with everyone from Night Raid, the ones who had gone on the mission before having returned.

With his Teigu, Cross Tail, Lubbock had already set up his threads around the place. No one would be getting in or out without his knowing.

They were about 100 metres from the entrance to Iwokaru's mansion when they stopped.

"Anything Lubba?"

He shook his head at Akame's question. "Nothing."

Naruto took a look at the place and whistled. "I know he's a relative of the Prime Minister and all, but this place is huge. It's like his own fort."

The mansion itself was elevated onto high ground, a whole ton of stairs leading up to it, and at the bottom surrounding its giant perimeter were 20 ft. high walls with shingles atop them. Naruto couldn't see anyone, but he could feel the negative emotions coming from it; the almost passive sadism pouring out was enough to get his blood pumping.

"You've got that right." Lubbock agreed. His face twitched, a scowl forming. "Just imagine how many cute girls he's managed to have his way with because of the size of his house."

Naruto smirked. "Imagine how many he's had at once because of the size of his house."

His green-haired friend groaned in despair. "Don't make me."

"What about how loud its undoubtedly gotten in there?"

"No..."

"How many times they came back for more?"

"Please..."

"Then think about how you'll never get any of it."

Lubbock's shoulders dropped, his head following. "He's right..." He mumbled mostly to himself, sounding depressed. "I'm never going to have a huge house that will leave women everywhere swooning..."

Leone sighed in mild disappointment. A pair of ears rested on her head, a tail was swinging idly behind her, a vertical slit went down her golden eyes, and her hands had been replaced by claws, showing that her Teigu—Lionelle—was active. "You've got a one track mind."

"Oi, oi." Bulat's Teigu—Incursio—covered him from head-to-toe in its armour, the white cloak on the back rustling in the cold, night air. It made him look pretty bad ass, in Naruto's opinion. "You can't blame him for that, I was like him at his age."

"That's different! Don't compare me to you like that!" Lubbock had apparently gained his second wind. "You were never after women in the first place."

Naruto decided to pipe in. "He still probably got more than you do."

"You're a dick."

"Everyone." Naruto had been about to retort, but swallowed it at Akame's voice. From the distance they were at and with it being the dead of night, they couldn't see too much, only small figures illuminated by the light. "Get ready."

Within the first few moments after she'd spoken, a loud gunshot ripped through the night air, a beam of light rapidly making its way towards the figures from where Mine and Tatsumi had gone. It zipped through a bunch of them, probably missing them by mere inches, and went straight through one of them in the middle—Iwokaru. The small figure that was his body jerked backwards and hit the ground.

Now came their part of the job, sorting themselves out—relocating should they need to—dependent on the reaction to Iwokaru's assassination. They did, after all, still need to kill his five bodyguards.

Twelve men came out of the mansion, a few of them checking on Iwokaru's body first, before they paced down the hundreds of stairs. Four of them were further in front, leading the pack.

Naruto frowned at the numbers. There was only supposed to be five bodyguards, not this extra security as well. He glanced at Leone who had checked the place out earlier that same day, but she seemed as caught off guard as he was.

Nevertheless, that's what they'd expected them to do. It's why they were on the only path that took them to where Mine and Tatsumi had been.

Lubbock's fingers twitched, probably setting up his threads around the place, while everyone else waited for them to arrive silently.

They could no longer see them, their sight blocked by the forest they were in and the dark, but the blond could sense the negative emotions they had—anger, anxiety, and some fear—and they were still coming towards them. They weren't far off at all anymore.

Naruto gripped his sword's handle, unsheathing it just as they came into a view, the four in the front coming to a grinding halt, the other eight bringing up their guns and aiming at them as they did so.

The four apparent leaders of the group—who Naruto could only assume were Iwokaru's bodyguards—had masks covering their faces, and wore some sort of uniform; probably ones from Koukenji, considering they'd been trained there, but he couldn't really say as he'd never seen one before.

The eight behind them wore the standard, light armour of a soldier from the Empire, loaded with their machine guns.

"Well, well." Leone grinned and pounded a clawed fist into her palm. "Now then. Let's go wild!"

The bullets flew first and Night Raid scattered, except for Leone and Bulat who jumped in pretty much headfirst, the former able to move her body around and out of the way, with the latter shrugging off any bullets like they didn't effect him at all.

As Bulat and Leone kept the majority's attention busy, a few of them aiming for other members of Night Raid, Naruto arced around and came in from the side. Leaping over a bunch of shrubs, rustling them and gaining the attention of the closest soldier, he raised his sword over his head and held it with both hands as a golden aura ignited around it.

The soldier had begun to spin around to face him, firing his gun before he'd even had it aimed.

He was too slow.

Naruto's golden blade split him in half, but he didn't stop there, having to raise it back up in an angled swing, separating a man's arm from his body at the elbow—one of the bodyguards.

The pack had scattered.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto could see two soldiers back-to-back, dangling in the air and grasping at their throats. On the other side, Sheele snipped her scissor Teigu—Extase—shut, cleanly bisecting a bodyguard, blood spewing and the two halves smacking into the ground with a thump.

"Y-you..." The bodyguard who'd last half an arm was bent over in pain, gripping the wound with his lone hand as if it'd help. "You piece of shit."

Naruto took a strong step forward and jabbed, aiming for his heart, but the masked man ducked under it even in his wounded state and made a leap for his legs.

He was too slow, too.

The blond's knee flew up and smashed into his masked face, sending him sprawling back with spider web-like cracks all over his mask. He made an attempt at getting up, having trouble with his one arm, but Naruto moved over and slipped his glowing blade through his chest, pushing it straight through his heart without resistance.

Once the bodyguard's body had fallen, he slid his sword back out and took a quick look around. Blood was splattered all over the place, none of it belonging to Night Raid—the twelve gunman soldiers were all dead, their bodies scattered apart from the two who Lubbock had hung, and three of the four bodyguard's bodies were laid out, one of them missing a large chunk of their chest. Probably Bulat's doing.

There was a loud crunch behind him, and he turned his head just in time to see the last bodyguard's body get sent flying into a tree, neck twisted at an awkward angle.

"Aah~" Leone had a blissful expression, an over-the-top smile on her face. "That was so refreshing."

The others, who hadn't actually gone all that far anyway, came back towards them, Sheele speaking up. "They were quite strong, weren't they?"

"Eh, not really." Lubbock sighed and scratched the back of his head. "The two I got just walked straight into my thread without a second thought."

"Oowh." Leone sided up on the green-haired teen, slinging an arm around his neck, a sly smirk forming. "Then if it was so easy, how about letting the rest of us split half of your reward?"

"No way."

"It'd be fair." Sheele's head was tilted to the side in thought, her hand brought up to her mouth. "You didn't kill any of the bodyguards and only got two of the soldiers, so you did the least work out of all of us."

"It's strange." Akame broke in on the ribbing Leone was giving Lubbock, her lips slightly angled down. "There was supposed to be five bodyguards. There was no mention of extra security, either."

"Then the other one's gone after Tatsumi and Mine." Bulat ran a comb through his hair, getting it back up to what it's usually at when he's not using his Teigu. "They should be fine. Mine's strong, and Tatsumi's not weak."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed, sliding his sword back into the sheath hanging from his back. "We can worry about why there was other soldiers here later."

* * *

><p>Najenda hummed, mulling over the information she'd been given from their report. It was good that they completed the mission without a problem and eliminated Iwokaru, but the fact that there was more guards than even Leone knew was troubling. Resting her elbow on the arm of the chair and her chin in her palm, she spoke up. "It sounds like we might have been set up."<p>

Her subordinates' scrabbled attention focused on her and Naruto responded first. "Who'd do that? Can't be anyone from the Empire, right? They wouldn't put this much effort into leading us into a trap and only send eight extra soldiers."

"I don't know." Najenda admitted with a sigh. "But take it with a grain of salt. It might just be the Prime Minister being more cautious."

She didn't believe her own words. Extra security, even if the numbers were small, didn't happen just on a whim, especially not at such convenient timing. But that was for her to worry about, not them.

Naruto frowned. Najenda wouldn't put it past him to have already figured that the Prime Minister being more cautious was bullshit. He could pretty much always tell when someone was lying or not being completely truthful, and if he was close enough to a person, he could sense even the most minute negative emotions—it was half the reason she'd wanted him to join Night Raid when they'd been introduced.

"Haah." Lubbock swung his arms behind his head, interlocking his fingers, beginning to walk out of the meeting room. "If that's it, then I'm going to bed. That mission bummed me out."

Naruto followed after him. "You did shit all, Lubba."

"Oi I killed just as many as you did!"

"Two grunts that walked straight into your thread. They were easy and you know it."

"Still counts. _And _I set up a perimeter around that huge place. You did less than me!"

"I got one of the bodyguards!" The blond protested. "That's like a mini boss. If we were going by a point system, I'd have you beat by miles."

"But there is no point system, dumbass."

"Well, can there be? From now on. It'd be cool."

"Nope."

The two continued to bicker, even after the door that connected the meeting room and hallway had been slammed shut, until their voices faded out. The other members of Night Raid began to filter out at their own pace.

Tatsumi blinked, having been watching the two as they left with a strange look. "What's with them? They're a bit..."

"Weird?" Bulat stepped in. He shrugged. "They're just close. Though, they didn't get along when Naruto first got here."

"Eh? They didn't?" Tatsumi's eyes flicked back over to the door. "What happened then?"

Najenda stood out of the chair and added in to the conversation. "None of us know. One day they were at each other's throats, then the complete opposite the next." Reaching into her pocket, she flipped open the box of cigarettes and grabbed one, pulling out her lighter with it. Placing it between her lips, she flicked the lighter and lit the end, inhaling the smoke. "Go get some sleep you two."

* * *

><p>His large hand wrapped around her neck, lifting her up off the ground, but not with so much force that she couldn't talk or breathe. Her boyfriend lay on the stone, cold, ground a couple feet away, red liquid oozing out of his exposed neck. His decapitated head wasn't far from it, eyes shot wide open with shock, strained, staring into nothing as his own blood pooled around.<p>

Raw panic flooded through her as the man—no, the _monster—_lifted her even higher, his grip tightening a smidgen more. "Please..." She begged hysterically. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn't know when they'd started. "Please don't kill me!"

"Oh, come now." His voice was strangely calm, sardonic, and with an underlying tone of danger. "It's your own fault for walking around in the dead of night. Didn't your parents ever tell you about the monsters that lurk about in the dark?"

She sniffed, more tears pouring. Using the grip she had on the man's hand currently around her neck—when had she even grabbed it?—she attempted to push him and kick away, but her efforts were fruitless. Her heart pounded rapidly in her chest, growing faster and faster to the point it became painful as the moments went by. "I'll do anything! Please!"

"Really?" He sounded interested. "Anything that I ask?"

"Yes!" A glimmer of hope. Maybe—just maybe—she'd be able to get out of all this mess if she just obeyed him. Listened to him. Did as she was told. She could survive. "I will! Anything, I'll do it!"

He looked up at her, eyes shining, a cruel smirk stretching its way onto his face. The strange device strapped to his forehead, roughly resembling some sort of eye, added to it and made him look ever more terrifying. "And... what if I told you that I want to see your head removed from your body?" Her heart stopped. She'd heard what he'd said, but the information wasn't registering. She didn't understand. "Would you be so willing then?"

"Eh?"

It felt like something was leaving her.

Her eyes weren't closing, she was sure of it, but her vision was slowly fading to darkness.

There was no sound. Not the slight wind rustling her dress, nothing coming from the man's mouth, despite it moving. Not even a minute bit of sound from anywhere.

Falling was the next sensation she felt. It was light, and she didn't completely understand how she was falling without any part of her body hitting anything yet.

Her vision kept leaving her.

She caught a glimpse of his giant grin, then...

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3 done!<strong>


	4. Fourth

An Assassin's Emotions Chapter 4

I don't own Naruto or Akame ga Kill.

* * *

><p>"Where are we going Naruto?"<p>

"Hunting."

Tatsumi sighed, strolling behind the blond. "For what?"

Naruto shifted the backpack he was carrying. "You'll see when we get there."

His eye twitched. They'd been walking for the past couple of hours—having first started out in a more forest-esque and green area, they were now in a dry canyon, surrounded on both sides by rough rock, which seemed to go up for hundreds of feet.

"When are we going to get there?"

"Soon." As soon as the words finished leaving his mouth, his arm wrenched back and he ripped out his sword, then the next thing Tatsumi knew was blood spraying through the air, two halves of a somewhat humanoid, dark grey beast, at least seven feet tall, laid out on the ground. "We're here."

He sounded so carefree.

"What... was that?"

"A Danger Beast." It didn't have any distinctive face—rather, it was blank; no mouth, nose, eyes or anything, like it was wearing a solid helmet over everything—and its body was rather bland, almost matching that of an athletic human. The side of its forearms, however, came into a sharp edge. "I used to get dropped off here a lot when I was younger to train. These guys-" He tapped the left leg with his foot. It twitched. "-are really quick and can chop you to bits within moments if you can't defend yourself. I almost died the first twenty or so times."

Tatsumi felt a chill go down his spine as he grabbed his broadsword and pulled it out, just in case. He didn't like where this was going. "You said you got dropped off?"

"Yeah." Naruto was suddenly crouched down, his sword arm extended out to the side, the bottom half of one of the Danger Beasts in front of him, standing, while the torso soared, red liquid splashing out and coating the ground in between them. He stood back up properly. "The guy who used to take care of me would bring me here and then disappear for the rest of the day."

How the blond could be so nonchalant when enemies were literally appearing in front of him from no where, Tatsumi had no idea. It was actually kind of terrifying. "W-wait..." He gulped. A sudden thought popped into his head. "You're not going to leave me here for the whole day, are you?"

"Why?" He grinned. "Scared of a little action?"

"No, but..." Tatsumi looked at both of the halved corpses of the Danger Beasts. "But I can't even see them move. They're just there."

"And you think I can?" The blond questioned. "Well, I sort of can, but it's nowhere near enough. You need to use your other senses, too." A rock hit the ground near them and Tatsumi flinched, snapping his head in the direction of it. A few more followed, then a loud, constant booming sound, like an avalanche, made him look up. Sliding down the wall of the canyon, using its hands and feet to slow its decent. "Besides, you won't be fighting the parents. You get their attention-seeking kids."

It crunched on the wall, blasting down directly at Naruto. He dodged its few swings without difficulty before crouching down and kicking it in the abdomen, sending it skidding down the canyon.

"Go on Tatsumi." He encouraged. "It's not going to go after you until I'm either dead or gone, no matter what you do."

"Why?"

"Revenge, obviously." Naruto replied like it was obvious. "It's only natural. I just killed its parents."

It was a Danger Beast, he knew that, but he still felt a little bit sorry for it. Having your parents killed right around the corner from where you are isn't something he'd ever want to go through. "R-right." It had bent low, on all fours, and without further pause it rocketed off towards them. Tatsumi intercepted it, clashing his blade against its forearms. It pushed and shoved, but he didn't let up.

He heard something hit the ground behind him, probably the bag Naruto had been carrying. "I'll be back later Tatsumi. Try not to die."

* * *

><p>Tatsumi looked dead on the table.<p>

Naruto scoffed down his ramen.

Leone apparently couldn't help but ask. "What happened to him?"

"He's just worn out." Naruto rocked on the back legs of chair, grabbing the head of Lubbock's own to keep him steady, which got him an annoyed look in return. "I took him to fight some Danger Beasts a couple hours away. He did alright, though he almost died near the end..."

"Ooh." Mine smirked, leaning forward on the table, sending a taunting look towards Tatsumi. "Can't even handle a few Danger Beasts, huh? As expected of a newbie like you."

He twitched but didn't offer up anything else.

"He must be beat if he's not even responding to Mine." Lubbock remarked. "He usually snaps back pretty quick."

"Maa." Bulat slapped Tatsumi on the back, making the teen jolt upright in his chair and groan, his hand immediately latching onto the offended spot. "It just shows how much spirit he was fighting with."

"Aniki!" He whined. "Why'd you have to hit so hard?"

"He's preparing you for what's to come, Tatsumi." Lubbock had a glint in his eyes. "After all, I can only imagine ho-"

Naruto covered his mouth and shook his head, lips twitching, barely containing his laughter. "Don't, don't." He started to lose the battle and a small snort escaped. "You can't tell him that, you'll ruin him for life."

"What?" Tatsumi gave them both a firmly annoyed expression. "Can't tell me what?"

"Don't bother." Akame advised, wiping her face with a napkin. The plate in front of her was already empty. "Naruto's more stubborn than Leone, and it's impossible to make her change her mind when she's made a decision as it is."

"Nawww." Leone grinned and slung an arm around her, bringing her in close.

"Don't say it like that, even Boss is more hard-headed than I am!" Naruto protested. "Remember whe-"

Something soft and mushy slammed into his face and it made him jerk back, tilting his chair backwards at a dangerous degree. If he hadn't have grabbed onto Lubbock's chair, again, he would've fallen all the way.

He saw the green-haired assassin's leg move, then suddenly he was falling backwards and he slammed into the floor with a groan. "You're a dick."

"Look who's talking."

Sheele smiled down at him. "You shouldn't be leaning back on your chair like that, Naruto."

"Yeah." He accepted the hand she offered him, wiping the rice from the rice ball Najenda had thrown at him off from his face. "Thanks Sheele."

"Don't mention it."

* * *

><p>They'd been given their next target: Zank the Beheader.<p>

He was a serial killer going around the Capital as of recent, lurking in the night and decapitating any victims he could get his hands on. Discounting his execution work at the Empire's greatest prison, his kill count was pretty high up there, and there was even a number of them that were in the imperial guard. What made things worse was that he'd stolen the warden's Teigu before defecting.

They'd been put off into pairs: Mine and Sheele, Naruto and Lubbock—as those four would usually go—Bulat and Leone, which left Tatsumi and her to go searching.

"Our search area is down this way." Akame said, glancing behind her at the strolling Tatsumi, her own Teigu grasped in her right, gloved hand.

Tatsumi's hands were shoved in the pockets of his coat, eyes scanning around. "Seems like the people of the Capital are too scared of the killer to come out at night anymore, huh." She heard footsteps and voices. The steps were heavy, they were running, and the voices were rushed. They were getting closer. "They don't know how easy it would be to-"

Akame shoved her free hand over his mouth and dragged him down an alley, shoving him around into a corner. As soon as they'd slid down the wall, the voices and footsteps banged down the street they'd been walking. "It's the Capital's city guards." She peeked around the corner. "Even these guys have shown up. We need to be careful."

When they were long gone, she let Tatsumi go and stood back up.

"Why are we here anyway?" Tatsumi patted down his clothes. "Earlier, you said that Lubbock and Naruto would probably be the ones to find him, so we wouldn't do anything." He scrunched his face in confusion. "Why would they find him anyway?"

"Naruto's Teigu." That seemed to snag his attention to her almost immediately. "Because of it, he can sense the negative emotions in people. Finding someone like Zank shouldn't be too difficult for him." He looked like he was going to open his mouth to speak again, but she continued before he could. "But, negligence is forbidden, Tatsumi."

After a moment of silence, she began walking again, Tatsumi running to catch up to her. "Teigu." He said rather blandly. "What are they?"

It was about time he asked, she supposed. It wasn't like they'd been trying to hide it from him or anything, and it'd be better if he had more of an idea what he'd be going up against. She brought up Murasame more into his eye sight. "Things like this."

"I still don't get it."

So, as they walked and searched for their target, Akame began to explain the concept of Teigus; how the Emperor from a thousand years ago originally ordered their creation, using materials taken from the most powerful danger beasts, gathering the greatest scientific minds from all over the world to make forty eight deadly weapons that were given the name "Teigu"—each unique with their own abilities, but all powerful beyond belief.

Then, she went on and mentioned the civil war that occurred over five hundred years ago, the battles of which resulted in the loss of nearly half of the Teigus. "That's about all of it." She finished.

"And you're saying that everyone in Night Raid has a Teigu?" His stare was pretty intense, mulling over the information. It was probably a lot to take in, even more so considering they were looking to assassinate someone who wielded one of those very weapons.

"Yes, everyone except for Boss."

Seeing his expression turn inquisitive, she went on and began to briefly explain their Teigu, starting with her own.

Murasame; a sword that could kill anything with a beating heart with just a single cut.

Leone's Lionelle; a belt around her waist that significantly heightened her senses and physical capabilities.

Mine's Pumpkin; a gun which gained destructive power dependent on how much danger the user was in.

Bulat's Incursio; armour that provided an iron wall defense and could blend into any environment, but put a massive strain on the user.

Lubba's Cross Tail; thread with an apparent infinite number of uses, primarily for traps, barriers and the like.

Sheele's Extase; a giant pair of scissors which could cut through any known material.

"And what about Naruto's?" He questioned. "You said he can sense negative emotions because of it, but is that all?"

"No." She shook her head. That _definitely_ wasn't all, she'd learnt that the hard way first hand years ago when she was still fighting for the Empire and had come up against the blond, nearly being slaughtered several times over in quick succession. She was glad she didn't have her Teigu back then, if things had been even a little different, she wouldn't be standing here right now. "His Teigu—the gem around his neck—feeds off his own negative emotions, converting it into a massive offensive power."

"Eh? It's not the sword he's always carrying around?"

"He'll probably change that out for a new one soon enough." She said. "They're steel, but they'll break when they come under too much stress."

* * *

><p>"Anything?"<p>

"No."

"Now?"

"No."

"What about now?"

"No."

It was silent for a moment.

"And now?"

"Lubba, if you don't quit it, I'm going to tell Leone about your new spot."

He froze. "You wouldn't."

"I woul-hm?"

Naruto stopped, staring off into the distance. His brows had scrunched together and his hands had dropped to his sides, fixated on something. Lubbock could only assume he felt someone's negative emotions, probably Zank's; he'd gotten like this on a few other missions before, only this time it was like he was trying to figure something out.

"Is it him?"

"He's probably the cause of it, yeah. Come on." He kicked off and began running down the street, Lubbock moving after him and keeping pace.

The cause of it—so Zank had already begun to move and attack someone. He hoped it wasn't some random civilian, he'd probably be able to slip away after killing them as Naruto apparently couldn't sense him directly, plus if the former executioner ran into one of the pairs (or even just one of them on their own), they'd be able to—at the absolute least—be able to keep him pinned until Naruto and he got there.

It really did help that no one was out, they didn't really need to put much effort into staying out of sight. Even if neither of their faces were on any wanted posters, two teens running down the streets, one with an obvious blade strapped to his back, and nothing indicating that they were in the military, wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

Naruto shot around a corner and Lubbock snatched his hand out onto the corner of a building as a knee-jerk reaction to push himself in the same direction.

"Are we getting close?"

"Yeah." The blond's demeanor was different, not in a bad way. He was focused, rather than his usual minute long attention span. "Just about there."

Taking a right, they went through either arches of a massive, stone, double arch entrance. It was near pitch black under it, and it went on for a good three meters before they came out the other side. Up ahead, probably a decent thirty or forty meters, were three people—three important people.

Akame and an absolutely giant of a guy—who he could only assume was Zank—were going at each other hard, their flurry of rapid strikes and slashes meeting in the middle, each one poised maim, sever or outright kill the other.

Tatsumi wasn't very far from either of them, laid out on the ground, watching the two fight each other to the death with amazement on his face.

Akame got into Zank's personal space, swinging Murasame down with all she had, and the two broad blades extending out from just above the much bigger Teigu wielder's wrists exploded into bits.

They hadn't stopped moving, continuing to run towards the fight. Even if it looked just about over, and whether they actually needed to or not, they'd interfere—they were assassins; they didn't have any honor when it came to fights, there was no one-on-one confrontations if they could help it.

They didn't get there in time.

Akame had already finished it.

Zank's throat opened, his blood spewed. Futilely, he grasped at his throat with his big hands, eyes wide, expression panic ridden. He stumbled, tripping over his own feet onto his back, gasping, coughing and gurgling incoherently. Even if he could—somehow—survive having his throat slit, it didn't matter, he was dead the moment he'd been cut.

That was the frightening power of Akame's Teigu—Murasame—even just a tiny nick that wouldn't usually bother anyone would be the end of you.

They came to a stop around Tatsumi. The back of his white hooded cloak was stained with blood, a decent tear going down it. He looked beaten, a bruise forming on his left cheek, but he'd be fine.

Naruto offered him a hand. "Can you get up?"

"Yeah." Tatsumi grasped onto his hand with his own and hoisted himself up, he wobbled but stayed on his feet.

"So how about it?" Lubbock's attention came back to Akame, her Teigu coming to rest at her side. "You can't hear the moans of the dead, right?"

Zank laid there, unmoving. His hands were by his side instead of around his neck, his head at a slight angle. "Hah." It was actually pretty impressive that he could still make any noise, let alone split his face into a grin. Even so, his voice got quieter with each syllable that came from his mouth. "Happy... happpy... the sound has stopped."

Murasame slid back into its sheath, the owner spinning on her heel and making her way towards them. Lubbock saw Zank's mouth move a bit more but he couldn't hear what he was saying, but from the way Akame turned her head slightly, she could—he finally gave out, head falling back and dully hitting the stone ground.

Naruto sighed, scratching the back of his head. That was a bad habit of his. "So that's it then." He sounded disappointed. "I didn't even get to do anything."

"You were slow." Akame pointed out bluntly. He twitched. "And you should've found him first."

"Well I didn't!" He huffed, crossing his arms, not holding back on the annoyance he showed towards her. He never really was one for hiding his emotions. "I couldn't sense a thing, and when I finally did get _something_, it was already too late."

"What was it?" Tatsumi piped in. "What made you come here?"

"Ah." He tilted his head to the side, thinking for a moment. "Hmm, what about this. Think of sorrow, regret and anger. Now imagine that they had a threesome, the kid from that undoubtedly wonderful session would be what I felt."

Tatsumi deadpanned.

Akame's lips thinned.

Lubbock's head dropped. "Dumbass."

* * *

><p>"What's up with him?"<p>

That was Leone's voice, having only just entered the room. Lubbock's annoyingly uninterested voice reached his ears next. "He's been like that all day." He could feel the other assassin's annoyance radiating. He was probably on the receiving end of a glare. "And he keeps bitching every now and then."

Naruto was seated in one of the wooden chairs at the table, his arms spread out over it, cradling his head. "There's no food." He didn't know whether they could actually tell what he was saying, his voice sounded muffled even to him. He groaned with purpose. "Akame's been gone since early this morning, and she didn't leave anything for me to eat. I couldn't find Tatsumi either, he was my second choice."

"You're not a baby." It was Najenda this time, though she'd been there for an hour or so already, babbling on with Lubbock and throwing the occasional jab in his direction about being lazy. But that wasn't his fault, there wasn't any chores left for him to do after everyone else, so he was forced to sit around all day with nothing to do until it became unbearable, at which point he'd nag Bulat to spar with him. He got his ass handed to him every time. "And there's plenty of ingredients in the kitchen to cook a meal with."

Naruto lifted his head, resting his chin on his forearm, giving her a half-lidded, flat stare. "I can't cook."

Lubbock looked at him in disappointment accompanied by an eye roll, Boss shook her head, Leone on the other hand was apparently amazed. "Weren't you travelling all over the kingdom with some old guy before you joined the Revolutionary Army though?"

"Yeah."

"And you didn't learn how to cook at all?"

"I tried." He protested. His gut felt like an empty abyss. "But he said that I was too impatient for it. He stopped trying to teach me entirely when I burnt the food and nearly caved his head in with the pot and pan combo for the third time."

Naruto sighed, letting his head loll to the side, dully staring at the wall across the room. If that bastard had just taught him how to cook properly without all the added bullshit like temperature and whatnot, then he wouldn't be suffering this pain right now. A fire was a fire, damn it, and it was supposed to cook the stuff in the pots and pans.

"No wonder you suck at picking up chicks." Lubbock had a lilt to his tone. "You can't cook, you've got no appeal. Maybe I should switch you out with Tatsumi."

"Like you're one to talk, Lubba." Leone swooped in to save the day. "You haven't been able to snag anyone, and you were so bad with Sheele that she didn't even know what you were doing."

"Oi!" Lubbock snapped, getting out of chair and glaring at the only other blonde in the room. Naruto took enjoyment in his flustered face. "Sheele wouldn't know what flirting was if it slammed straight into her, that's hardly my fault!" He crossed his arms and slumped back down in the chair, crossing his legs, grumbling and pouting.

"Where is Sheele anyway?" Naruto asked. "I haven't seen her today either."

Najenda took her gaze from Lubbock and trained it on him. "She's taken Tatsumi out to train." He nodded for her to keep going. Sheele wasn't very good at any everyday activities, always being clumsy and mucking it up, but if there was one thing she excelled at it was being an assassin, he was confident that she'd be able to train someone like Tatsumi. "Last I heard they were going down to the river with a couple sets of heavy armour."

Lubbock grabbed an apple out of one of the few fruit baskets on the table, immediately crunching into it. Naruto had been offered them, but he refused. That didn't pass as real food. "I wonder about that." He said. "Is it really a good idea to put Sheele in charge of Tatsumi?"

"It's fine, they should get along well together." Najenda assured, fiddling with an apple she'd grabbed before taking a chunk out of it. "It'll be good for Tatsumi to have more experienced teachers."

"Ooh!" Leone piped in, her hands firmly planted on the table, a giddy expression on her face. "I've got dibs on Tatsumi next!"

"He's not a toy." Naruto deadpanned.

She grinned. "Not yet."

* * *

><p>Naruto kept his eyes trained down at the bottom of the canyon, more specifically where the brown-haired, somewhat shorter assassin was being pushed back by a danger beast. The week and a bit he'd had Tatsumi under his wing, coming here every single day, had been finished ever since Sheele had gotten her hands on him, he'd asked to be brought back out here.<p>

It was starting to get dark, the moon and stars beginning to show themselves.

Naruto didn't know why, and he'd declined the request at first, but retracted that and decided to take him in the end; he was probably going to go without him, and with him already been worked into the ground day-by-day thanks to Sheele's regime, the blond figured it was best to make sure he at least lived through it.

Actually, he was surprised that Tatsumi had lasted as long as he had. They'd been there for a good couple of hours, excluding the long ass time it took to get there in the first place. Naruto (again) had killed the parents—Tatsumi sure as hell couldn't take them on, he'd be slaughtered before he even knew what had happened—but he had gone into a frenzy of attacks on the first one to show up and ended up killing it before it even had a chance to launch a counter.

The ones after didn't go down as fast.

Now, stinking up the place—the smell even reaching up to where he was on top of the canyon—the seven corpses of the danger beasts, split into pieces, abdomens opened, limbs missing, and even the decapitated head of one, lay on the ground. The earlier ones' blood had already dried up, but the most recent one still had the red liquid oozing from the stump that used to be its leg, and its throat.

Tatsumi was frustrated and angry, he could feel it radiating off him in waves, even if it had been significantly dampened since he'd started fighting the danger beasts. It wasn't directed at anyone, or didn't seem to be anyway, so the blond could only assume that Tatsumi was just in a pissy mood, or those feelings were directed at himself. Naruto was betting on the latter.

Why? He didn't know, he hadn't asked, but it was probably because of Zank's Teigu rejecting him just the night before. He hadn't made a very good first impression.

Teigu were weapons—the high-level and extremely dangerous beasts that they used to be weren't alive anymore (most of them at least)—but they still had the capacity to pick and choose between who wielded them and first impressions were crucial in that, so everything and everyone said.

For himself, Naruto couldn't say, he'd had his own Teigu for as long as he could remember, and he could remember (kind of) back to when he was around three or four years old. He'd had a family back then, two parents with his mother expecting a second child—a second child that was never born. They were murdered before that could come to pass. If he didn't have a picture of all three of them in his room, he probably would have forgotten their faces.

Aside from seeing the corpses of his parents as clear as possible, he didn't remember much about what had happened, and he didn't know who specifically had done it, just that they were a General in the Empire's military—just like his father had been. That's why he'd wanted to join Night Raid in the first place, he wanted to find out who'd killed them and give them the same treatment. Just being a soldier for the Revolutionary Army, Teigu or not, he wasn't going to get the answers or chance he wanted.

His mentor had encouraged that mentality, to an extent. With his Teigu feeding off his own negative emotions for power, he needed a drive like that.

After that, his memories consisted of travelling around the Empire, sometimes going off into the other countries, with his mentor. Back then, relaxing days were very few and far between, every day was filled with him hunting and killing off danger beasts and getting paid for it. By the time he was thirteen, his mentor was taking him more seriously, and his targets changed from danger beasts to humans.

He hadn't known it back then, but he was already doing work for the Revolutionary Army—killing off the Empire's spies, scouts, soldiers and anyone else that was deemed in the way. Of course, his body count wouldn't be able to compete with nee-chan or Akame's, but it was up there.

"Naruto."

He jumped at the sudden yet familiar voice, grunting in annoyance and looking off when a chuckle followed. He could sense negative emotions, and that left him rarely in surprise by someone's presence, but there was one person that always managed to sneak up on him without any apparent difficulty. "What are you doing here Bulat?"

"Nothing worth mentioning." The much bigger and older assassin slid down beside him, dangling his legs over the edge. He may swing for the other team, but there was no mistake that Bulat was one of the most chill and cool guys Naruto had been around. His blue eyes—darker and deeper than his own—scanned and observed Tatsumi. Compared to other points along the canyon, they weren't that high up—but still high enough to go undetected by the danger beasts—almost in a dip, so it wasn't too difficult to see down there even with the sun disappearing. "He's improving quickly, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Naruto admitted. He'd been pleasantly surprised with Tatsumi's progress so far. "He's already lasting a lot longer than he did the first time, and Sheele's been pushing him all day too."

"I know."

There was a certain lilt to his tone, and a glint in his eyes. Naruto rolled his own and shook his head. "You're worse than Leone."

"That's insulting."

"It's supposed to be."

Down the bottom, Tatsumi ducked, rolled, and kept forcing his body out of the way of the danger beast's onslaught, puffing and panting, face marred in sweat and his clothes stained with blood. If things kept going the way they were, he'd soon loose it and get his head lopped off.

Naruto exhaled through his nose and and swung his legs back up, using them and his hands to get into a standing position. He stretched, pushing into his back and getting some nice cracking sounds that made him sigh in relief. "Looks like he's had enough."

"Mhm." Bulat seemed deep in thought, just staring at the bottom of the canyon. He blinked slowly, coming back, calm, reserved and determined. It was like he'd come to a conclusion on something. "He's got a lot of potential, Naruto. When it comes for us to attack the Empire full force, we're going to need him. Until then, make sure he keeps on living."

"Y-yeah." Naruto frowned. There was nothing negative coming from the other Night Raid member, but it still made him feel empty enough that his stomach churned. He didn't like it. Squashing the feeling down, he continued. "He's one of us now, so I'm not going to let him die."

Bulat smirked. "Optimistic as always."

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4 done!<strong>

**Early Merry Christmas!**


	5. Fifth

An Assassin's Emotions Chapter 5

I don't own Naruto or Akame ga Kill.

* * *

><p>"So that's him, huh?"<p>

"Yeah." Lubbock's hair ruffled as his head nodded. "I wonder if he can actually take over a position like that, he really doesn't look much older than we are."

"No shit." Naruto rolled his eyes. It was like he hadn't read the profile that Najenda had compiled based on the information she'd gotten from the Revolutionary Army, despite him already having gone through it several times. "He's only eighteen, Lubba."

To be honest, he didn't know why the Revolutionary Army had tasked them with something like this. Sure, it was their job to take out anyone that would be a hindrance to a new Empire, but a request like this would generally come from someone in the public—it wasn't like a brand new gang leader, who'd only just taken over from his now deceased father, was anywhere near as important as, say, a General in the Empire's army.

It just seemed like a waste of time to him; for someone high ranking in the Revolutionary Army to send out an order so localized and small in comparison to anything they usually got.

Naruto breathed out through his mouth, swinging his arms behind his head and interlocking his fingers. They'd come along as just the two of them, everyone else in Night Raid had been given their own assignments, and as a means to observe their target, they'd dressed up in all black, sans for the white dress shirt underneath, and attended the funeral of the father.

He didn't like it.

Mostly because of the colours.

They'd been allowed to attend without a problem—the deceased gang leader had been the only one to know everyone working for him, so no one was even the least bit suspicious when they'd gone in without saying a word to anyone else.

There had been a picture frame of him on his coffin. He was a short, podgy little dude, with puffy brown hair, a pair of small black glasses and a black suit. Without a doubt, he led his gang with intelligence rather than brute force, which would also explain as to why it was as big as it was. It boggled his mind that someone like him had gotten laid, let alone enough to birth a son and a daughter. Then again, he was the leader of a gang. They generally got what they wanted. According to the profile they'd gotten on his son, which had listed family members, his name was Gato.

Sawada—his son—had been as expected of someone who'd just lost a parent; he didn't shed a tear, but he constantly seemed to be on the brink of losing it, and he was clearly in a depressed mood.

Not that it changed anything, he was still going to die. He'd committed atrocities of his own: rape, murder, drugs, participating in gang wars, just as of recent, and when he was just fifteen, he burned two families to ashes in a single night because his girlfriend at the time had cheated on him. In the profile, there had been a bit more detail on that specific incident, that he'd forced the two culprits to witness their family members disappear before their very eyes: the parents, their siblings; one of which was a baby barely a year old, before finally tying nooses around their necks and hanging them.

Despite what he'd done and would continue to do, he didn't look the part. A small photo of him had came with the profile, a fairly recent one at that, smiling with a fire in his eyes, undoubtedly before his father had passed. He looked genuinely cheerful. His light brown hair was messy and unkempt, with a pair of matching, hollow brown eyes. Like them and everyone else who'd attended the funeral, he'd been in all black.

"Mah." Lubbock shoved his hands in his pockets, staring forward in boredom. The funeral had not long ended and they were still in the area, gang members around them on all sides, mumbling and discussing things with everyone around. Not once was anything about a gang mentioned. To anyone who didn't know better, they were just a large group of regular citizens mourning the death of someone they knew. "What now then?"

"We should go talk to him." The teen being mentioned was currently engaged in conversation with three much older, wiser looking men. Going by their expressions, the subject was serious, serious enough to huddle together and mumble quietly enough so that no one else around could hear what was being said. "It'd be better and easier if we could convince him to take us back to his home with him."

"Fine, but you're leading."

Without any concern for the muttering of the older men, he squeezed his way into their group, bowing his head in acknowledgement. "Sorry for the interruption." He apologized, lips quirking upwards. "But I couldn't wait any longer to meet you, Sawada."

"Such disrespect."

He ignored the old man's words—well, to be fair on him, he wasn't _that_ old. Probably in his late forties, and he still looked like he could take a walloping. The other two weren't far behind in that department either.

Lubbock moved in beside him, after he'd moved and created some more room so he could actually fit.

"Who might you be?" Their target didn't seem to care, even going as far as to look relieved at the intrusion. "You're young. Did you work for my father?"

"Mhm." Naruto nodded with vigor. "Thought it wasn't for long and I didn't really get to do much. My own father was apparently good friends with him, always going on about how determined and quick on the mark he was. That was before he died, anyway."

"Ah, I see, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be, it's not your fault. And you learn to live with it."

He didn't offer up any form of response, gesturing to Lubbock instead. "And who's this? He's with you, right?"

"Yeah." Naruto slung his arm around Lubbock's shoulders and brought him in close, grinning. "His name's Green—well, that's not his _real_ name, but he despises his given one because of how much he got bullied for it. So I started calling him Green when we were kids and it kind of just stuck."

He didn't really know where he pulled the name from, but it did sound vaguely familiar. It was right on the tip of his tongue. It felt like if he shouted, it'd just come out of thin air and he'd remember. Oh well, it fit either way.

Sawada's lips quirked in amusement. "Why would you give him a name like that?"

"He's got an unhealthy obsession with anything green."

Lubbock elbowed him in the ribs after his blunt answer, making him wince and jerk back, rubbing the sore spot.

Maybe he should lay off a bit on the irony.

"As if you're one to talk about unhealthy obsessions, Kurama."

Oh, going for the name of his Teigu, huh? It was easier to use a more familiar name, there was less of a chance to make a mess of things, but he could've been more creative. That was one of his strongest points, after all.

Or maybe he was doing it on purpose.

"So what kind of work did your father do under mine?"

"Hm?" Naruto brought his attention back to the older teen, his hand coming back to his side. His ribs were still throbbing with some pain though. "Ah, security."

The distrust in the largest of the older men was as clear as day, but he didn't make a move nor say anything.

"Security huh." The gang leader mused aloud. He seemed more carefree now, like he was having a casual conversation with a friend. "Is that something you'd be interested in as well, or is it something else you were wanting to do?"

"Of course I want to work in security!" Naruto shrunk back down after the outburst, huffing out a breath and regaining his composure. "I mean, yeah, if that's okay. I've only been washing dishes and taking out garbage so far..."

"And you?"

Lubbock got that it was directed at him, shrugging aloofly. "I'd rather something easy, but if that's what he wants to do, then I'll follow."

"Great." Sawada smiled. It wasn't an empty, hollow or depressing one like he'd had all day, but a genuine one. He was actually happy. Naruto didn't know why, but it made him think—did he really already enjoy their company that easily? Even if they weren't there to kill him already, he wouldn't last very long in the Empire while being so trusting. "Then why not come back to my home? Get acquainted with the surroundings."

Naruto blinked. He had an act to keep up, not idle thoughts to dwell on.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Sawa-"

"It's fine." He cut off one of the older men swiftly, not even regarding him with a glance. "They'll obviously have to prove that they're up to the task, but that can come later."

"Really?" The blond grinned. "That would be awesome, thanks!"

* * *

><p>Sawada wasn't actually that bad of a person. Well, he was with his atrocious actions, but he wasn't when you just spoke to him—he was surprisingly friendly, and took light jabs at his person lightly, even throwing them back like being a smart ass was his profession. He had a little sister, seven years old, and she was a cute, innocent little girl that didn't even have an idea about the gang.<p>

His mother had made them all dinner, and despite being in her mid or late thirties, she was still a very attractive woman.

He'd been on the receiving end of annoyed looks all day from his leering.

The house they lived in was massive, as expected of a gang leader. Undoubtedly, a lot of money came their way without much problem. They'd been shown around the three stories, through the giant back yard, trekking through the maze a bit before heading out, and through the beautiful front yard with flora blossoming everywhere. During that sizable amount of time, Lubbock had been nearly constantly using his Teigu, setting wires all over the place.

No one would be moving anywhere without him being aware of it.

Naruto hadn't taken any weapons with him to the funeral, but he'd picked up his sword before coming to the home, after having informed the gang leader of what he was doing. He hadn't had time to change out of the clothes, though, so he was still in all black. It was probably for the best, it gave him more of an advantage at night when it was dark.

Picking up his sheathed blade, he swung it over his back, the strap falling snugly over his chest. The room he'd been given had clearly cost a lot of money—and it was just a guest room. Paintings were hung up, a royal-looking chair was in the corner, a king sized bed was up against the wall, there was a walk-in wardrobe, even a fireplace on the other side of the room.

He breathed out roughly through his nose. It was time to get to work.

Pushing the door open, he slid out into the hallway, hearing a small click behind him as the door locked back into place. Moving down, he made his way toward the spiral staircase.

He was on the second floor—it was entirely made for guests. Every single door led to a bedroom, a clone copy of the one he'd been in. Well, he was in a gang leader's home, so there was probably quite a lot of times when the more important people part of it stayed over in the interest of time. He would have gone to the room Lubbock had been given, but the other assassin had his own job to do and had either started already, or was going to in no time.

Earlier, not long after dinner had been served, the three elder men had shown up to continue their conversation from earlier. That was Lubbock's job. To kill them. They'd be a problem if they got in the way.

Naruto grabbed onto the railing, hefting himself up the stairs a few at a time, keeping his feet light and using the momentum the effort from his arms provided, going in a complete circle a couple of times before coming to a sudden stop at the top.

Unlike the second floor, the top one didn't have a hallway. It was a bunch of rooms all linked to each other, almost a mirror match of every other, aside from the master bedroom where his target slept. Presumably, it was where the the former leader of the gang had slept with his wife. The design was strange, but not exactly too difficult after being shown.

For someone who'd been betrayed by his ex, he was easy to get trust from. It made him wonder what he was like when he was much younger, the son of a gang leader couldn't have had too many kids his age around him.

In front of the blond was a large, sliding door with a wooden frame. It was almost like the entry of an entirely new house.

Sliding it open, he ducked inside and moved through the maze of rooms. There was no one up here—at least, no one awake or having a dream bad enough to give off negative emotions.

Wait, scratch that—a presence shot up towards him, brimming with desperation and fury. It moved around on the bottom floor, but he ignored it: even if whoever it belonged to had somehow found out what his real intention was, they wouldn't make it in time.

He'd reached the master bedroom in no time. It was large, triple the size of the other rooms on the floor, a statue of some menacing looking bird in each far corner, a fireplace in between them, a painting of an old guy hanging above it. On the opposite side was the bed—king-sized, clear drapes hanging over the three sides not up against the wall.

The floorboards creaked almost silently with each step he took towards it, the sound of his blade being unsheathed emanating throughout the otherwise quiet room.

His target lay on his back, breathing calmly, unknowing. The drapes were torn as the steel slashed through them, the teenager's eyes shooting wide open at the noise as blood from his neck sprayed, spilling onto his covers, giving the drapes a red tint.

The assassin merely observed as he grasped at his throat, giving him no attention, his one objective being self preservation. It didn't help him. His hands became stained with his own life force, an ugly red that needed to be exposed.

Naruto spun on his heel as the teen's last rattles of breath echoed through the room, red liquid dripping from the tip of his steel weapon every so often, creating a trail along the floorboards from the bed.

The fury and desperation had gotten closer, on the same floor as he was now, bolting through the maze of rooms. Naruto stopped in the middle of the open, sliding doors, waiting. The stomping footsteps were easy to hear.

She came in, swinging the gargantuan great sword wildly yet with precision. It was amazing that she had the strength to even hold something so large and heavy, let alone actually use it.

He ducked under the swing that would have bisected him. No matter how strong or capable you were with something so large, there was no chance for recovery in a short amount of time.

Naruto swung upwards, slicing under the hilt of the giant blade. Her nimble hands soared through the air, still grasping the large weapon, clattering onto the ground. She screamed and shouted, stumbling backwards and doing a poor attempt at hugging her arms to herself.

It was Sawada's mother—tears leaking from her eyes, an expression torn between grief and rage. "Y-you..." She gulped, stuttering, breathing heavy and uncontrolled. "_... fucking piece of shit..."_

"It would have been better if you didn't bother coming up here." Naruto stated rather blandly. Even after saying that, he knew there wasn't any other options for her: if she couldn't make it in time to save her only son, then she'd make whoever did it minced pieces of flesh. He'd lost people he'd been close to and had felt the same way, and he could only imagine the feeling would only be amplified when considering one's child. "Now you need to die, too."

"You were only here for this." If it was possible, her face twisted more, the negative emotions swirling in her so roughly that she was probably on the brink of breaking. "I-I'd thought that-" She choked. "That for once, things were going to look up for him."

Naruto slowly moved towards her, raising his blade over his left shoulder. It glowed a bright gold, it would make things easier. "Sorry."

He swung.

Her body spasmed, neck squirting blood as her head rolled. It swayed for a moment, collapsing onto its knees first, soon followed by the torso. At least it had been quick. He'd seen and experienced plenty of difficulties when someone was being beheaded—there was a surprising amount of resistance and usually took two, three or more strikes before it would leave its place.

Sighing, he began to sheathe his weapon, only to see a metallic glint appear in his vision, automatically swinging it back in front of him. He deflected it, but the force pushed him back and made his shoes slip and slide through the mother's blood.

There was someone in front of him, a blade not too much longer than his own lazily held in their hand. They were about his size, but it was difficult to tell—they were cloaked in all black, gloves and all, and a hood hid any facial features. What got to him more, though, was that he couldn't sense anything from them. It was like Bulat, and it terrified him.

There was very few people like that. Even Akame wasn't one of them.

"Tsk." He burst forward, swinging and slashing, being deflected on every point and getting a foot flying into his chest that sent him back to where he'd began. The mystery person hadn't moved an inch.

He couldn't deal with this, not now. He was an assassin, not a soldier, and he'd finished his mission. He didn't need to stay and fight anyone off, especially not anyone he had absolutely zero information on.

He needed a distraction.

Moving his hands, he gripped the hilt of the great sword, her hands still leaking blood and gripped to it. He peeled them off and hoisted the giant blade up, getting more respect for the woman now that he could actually feel how heavy the damn thing was. His own blade laid on the floor, not that it mattered much, he could easily get a replacement back at the base.

The cloaked person still hadn't made a move, just watching him. It creeped him out. Just seconds ago, he'd been almost killed by that same person, now they weren't even making an attempt.

The great sword gained a hue, glowing a bright golden colour. Naruto raised it above his head. There was only so much power you could put into something before it was destroyed from the inside out, which was why when it came to raw effort: bigger was better.

The floorboards creaked and splintered. He could hear windows cracking and smashing into bits, the sliding doors beginning to crumple.

_'This wouldn't be possible without something this big.'_ He mused. He'd done something similar before, but it was a long time ago, and it wasn't very useful for direct combat because of its speed incapability.

That had been a rather painful experience.

Breathing in deeply, he swung down, arms stretched out as far as they would go. A giant wave of what looked like a dull, golden light burst forth, spreading out rapidly, tearing through everything in its way with ease.

Naruto dropped the great sword and ran back into the master bedroom, leaping for the window and smashing through it with his own body. The mysterious person hadn't moved and had taken the attack dead on, but he didn't know if he'd died from it and he didn't want to find out.

"Naruto!"

Lubbock was running towards him, a look on his face that told him he wanted to know what was up. He didn't look like anything had even touched him, save for the small blood smear on his white dress shirt. He hadn't had time to change into his usual attire either.

"Did you finish?"

"Yeah." The green-haired assassin jerked his thumb. Naruto's eyes followed the direction—there, seemingly floating in mid air with a tilted head, was one of the elder men. He'd been caught in Lubbock's thread. "That one tried to run after he saw I took care of the second one."

"Didn't make it far." Naruto remarked before shaking his head. It wasn't time to talk, they needed to leave. "Come on, let's get out of here."

As they made their getaway, Lubbock questioned him about what had happened up there, he hadn't exactly been subtle. Naruto brushed him off, telling him that it would wait until they were far enough gone and that they just needed to get away from there.

* * *

><p>Something was wrong.<p>

Just yesterday he and Lubbock had finished off their target, and they'd taken their time on getting back, not far from the base now. He raised his arm and swatted a branch out of his view.

He could feel it.

It was almost suffocating—regret, anger, frustration, bitterness, shame, a thirst for vengeance, but above all of those was an overwhelming sadness.

The rain had long drenched his usual attire, having ditched the funeral clothes earlier that morning. If anything, the depressing weather just made it worse.

"Why are we running?" Lubbock kept at the same pace beside him, his pair matted down from the rain. "We don't need to rush."

Naruto stared at the muddy ground as he ran, only idly paying attention to his surroundings so he didn't face-plant into anything. His gut felt empty, not like when he was hungry, and it was a constant pain.

"Just run Lubbock."

He did. From his expression, he'd caught on that something was wrong and he didn't say anything further.

They made it the rest of the way in under a minute and Naruto came to a dead stop thirty or so meters in front of their base, the large structure towering behind him, built under an even bigger cliff. His arms fell slack at his side, his teeth gnashing together, fists tightening. Lubbock couldn't actually sense the mood like he could but he wasn't dense and had easily caught on as they'd arrived, his pace draining down into a dead walk.

Ahead of them were six people. Six comrades. But only six of them. One was missing: Sheele.

Liquid streaked down some of their faces, and it wasn't because of the rain, which got more and more persistent with every passing moment.

He heard Lubbock stifle a hiccup, still dawdling over to them.

Even if they were assassins, and something like this was expected to happen sooner rather than later, it didn't help. Even if they'd been the cause of sadness like this for others, even if they'd experienced it over and over again before, even if they'd been surrounded by this same feeling for longer than they could remember—it didn't help. It would never help. It wasn't something you could get accustomed to, it wasn't something you could become dull to, and it wasn't something that would go away.

Lubbock's pace had slowed until the point where he'd just stopped, slouched over in the rain.

Naruto felt like doing the same—just flopping down onto the ground. He didn't have any energy to stand anymore.

Tatsumi had been on the ground, Bulat standing over him. He didn't know what had happened, but the latter was still shaking, a myriad of negative emotions pouring out from him, unlike the usual blank he always gave off. It was the first time Naruto had felt anything from him, then again, in the two months he'd been there, it was the first time this had happened, which was surprising in of itself that it had lasted this long.

He preferred it the other way. Where Bulat was more akin to an empty abyss that scared him just as much as it interested him. All the feelings he was getting from him were unsettling—it broke his hardened visage.

Naruto began walking forward. He needed to be with them—he was one of them. Part of their group. He wasn't going to sit on the sidelines. He bumped into Lubbock, planting his hand over his shoulder and making him stumble forward a bit to get him going. Tatsumi had stood back up by the time they'd slipped into the group, rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand and wiping blood from his mouth. Bulat had punched him, he assumed, he tended to do that when Tatsumi did or said something stupid.

No one said anything about them returning, too absorbed in what had happened. Not that he paid too much attention to that, he wasn't in any different.

Out of all of them, Mine was probably the worst off. She'd been, by far, the closest to Sheele. They always spent time together, always partnered up, no matter how different from each other they were. They were pretty much inseparable. She was also the one he could feel the most emotions from—the most anger, the most sadness, the most frustration, and the biggest thirst for vengeance.

The rain hadn't let up. Through it, Najenda raised her voice, giving them all something to direct their attention to other than a swirling catastrophe. "Sheele's death wasn't pointless." She was troubled heavily. It wasn't in her voice or on her face, but he could feel it. "The Empire will now finally understand... it takes a Teigu to fight a Teigu."

It really did. Unless you had something of an equal tier, you'd be completely outmatched, outclassed and overwhelmed by a Teigu. Even Shingu, pretty much knock-off, failed attempts at creating Teigu, couldn't compete. He hadn't learnt that through his mentor or any book, but first hand, when he'd met Akame and the storm that had followed.

"Now, they will bring in more Teigu users to fight for them." Najenda continued. Throughout, she didn't flinch, her voice didn't waver, her expression remained stony. "What this means for us... is that the chances to collect more Teigu will increase."

Sheele was dead.

She was the first casualty.

It would only get so much worse from this point on.

* * *

><p>Her long, blue hair trailed and flowed behind her in the breeze. The danger beast she'd tamed and rode on shuffled, huffing, cooling down and letting its large wings rest. She kept a firm grasp on the chain, connected to the iron collar running around its neck. She moved her legs, crossing one over the other, her white high-heeled boots that reached nearly all the way up her legs rubbing together.<p>

Her three more trusted and stronger subordinates stood, cloaked, behind the danger beast, looking out past the cliff just as she did. Clouds were scattered over the bright blue sky, and in the distance, over the miles of bunched up trees, was the capital, its sheer size easily detectable even from so far away. It wasn't as tall as the mountains surrounding it, but it still put them to shame.

Returning felt exciting. She'd just left the North, burying a mass amount of them alive with her Teigu's power, and breaking their hero—Numa Seika. He was an example, and she hoped that others would rise up in time much stronger than he was. But it hadn't been enough. Despite their numbers and reputation, her army had soundly beaten them. She hadn't needed to interfere, but there was no way she'd miss out on it.

It was different now. There was a certain feeling, making her heart beat faster—something was happening in the capital. It was bigger, better, stronger than the Northern tribes. Of course, it was just a feeling, but she'd learnt to trust her instincts long ago. They hadn't failed her before.

_It was going to be fun._

Smirking, she pulled on the chain, forcing the danger beast to jerk its head back slightly.

"I'm home, Capital."

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5 done!<br>**


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